Harry Potter and The House Of The Serpent
by JimMcGuffin
Summary: How could Hagrid have forgotten to tell Harry how to access Platform 9 & 3/4? One small difference alters the future drastically. The old Slytherin Harry story, with hopefully enough ingenuity to stand apart and above the countless others. Retelling of Book 1 out of ?
1. Chapter 1: The Ticket

I've always liked stories where Harry was in Slytherin, particularly "Harry Potter and The Slytherin Selection" "On the Way To Greatness" and "Magical Relations" but there was always one thing or another that I had wished happened. That Harry was more ruthless. Or kinder, or more cunning, or something. Basically, while I love those particular stories, I wanted to give it a try myself.

Now, seeing as this is basically my first foray into writing (for HP at least, I'm not completely inexperienced. I've written a decent amount of other things as practice, and I don't usually make grammar or spelling errors.) I won't be posting chapters on a regular schedule.

The first paragraph will be taken directly from the first book, but the rest of the story won't be. Of course, it isn't that much of an AU, so most situations will likely be the same, just handled differently.

And lastly, I'm not JK Rowling. All characters and all that stuff belong to her, and although I doubt I need to write this down, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Enjoy.

**Harry Potter And The House Of The Serpent**

**Chapter 1: The Ticket**

Hagrid helped Harry onto the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope. "Yer Ticket fer Hogwarts" he said. "First o' September - King's Cross - it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me... See yeh soon, Harry."

Just as Harry was about take a seat aboard the train, he glanced down at his ticket, which read:

"The Hogwarts Express Departs from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, King's Cross Station, At 11:00 AM, on September 1st."

"Hagrid..." Harry said slowly, climbing down the steps from the train for a little more privacy.

Hagrid turned around with a slightly confused expression on his face. "Wha' is it Harry?"

"My ticket says to leave from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Do they even have a Platform Nine and Three-Quarters? And isn't King's Cross an ordinary station? What's to stop Muggles from seeing everyone on the Hogwarts Express?" Harry asked.

Hagrid clapped a hand to his head "Blimey, Harry! I almos' forgot. Yeh gotta go strait fer the barrier between Platform 9 an' Platform 10. 'Slike the Leaky Cauldron, Muggles just don' notice it, do they?"

"But Hagrid, you said a barrier, right?"

"Yep. It looks solid an' all, but it's not. Just walk right toward it, and yeh'll go right through. Or yeh could run right through if yer nervous like I was on me firs' day. Don' you worry about it." Hagrid said with a smile.

"Thanks Hagrid." Harry said, feeling the momentary confusion and mild panic from reading his ticket disappear.

"Yeh best be off now, Harry. Yer train's abou' ter leave." Hagrid said, patting Harry on the shoulder and causing his knees to nearly give way.

While the train was pulling out of the station, Harry rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, wanting to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight. He caught a glimpse of him striding away, but he blinked and then Hagrid was gone.

Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't very pleasant, to say the least. Admittedly, Dudley was now so terrified of Harry that he refused to stay in the same room as him, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force or threaten him to do anything, or holler at him. Come to think of it, they hardly spoke to him at all.

Half furious and half terrified, they acted as though Harry simply didn't exist. Although this was an improvement, it did become a bit tiresome after a while.

Harry mostly kept to his room, with his new owl and books for company.

He had decided to call the snowy owl Hedwig, a name he found in his copy of _A History Of Magic_, by _Bathilda Bagshot_.

All of his school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading for hours and hours, wanting to be as prepared as possible for his classes. He didn't have much else to do, so he may as well learn something that would help him do well in school. Even if parts of his books were boring (which they rarely were) he figured that it would be worth it in the long run.

It was a good thing Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum, seeing as Hedwig kept bringing back dead rodents through the open window. Every night before he went to sleep, Harry marked off another day on a makeshift calendar he had pinned to the wall, counting off the days down to September the first.

When the last day of August arrived, Harry figured he ought to speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching something on the Television. He cleared his throat to try and alert them to his presence, but they continued staring at the TV. He tried walking a bit closer to them, making slightly more noise than necessary, and still they gazed stupidly at the TV.

Deciding subtlety was never going to work on _them_, he finally just said "Er, Uncle Vernon? Aunt Petunia?" Dudley screamed and ran from the room, while Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening. "Er, I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to - to go to Ho- School." Harry barley caught himself in time, thinking it wise not to speak the name of his school in front of his relatives.

He had also decided against using terms such as magic, wand, wizard, cauldron, witch, or any other overly-magic associated words around them.

Uncle Vernon grunted again. Harry supposed that meant he was still listening?  
"Would it be alright if you gave me a lift?" Once again, his Uncle grunted. Harry supposed (or hoped) that meant yes. "Thank you." He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon miraculously spoke.

"Funny way to get to a _wizards_' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, do they?" Harry didn't say anything. It was usually best not to. Although he still got in trouble even when he kept his mouth shut, saying anything at all was more likely to anger his aunt and uncle.

"Where is this school, anyway?" his uncle continued. "I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket that he had gotten from Hagrid, out of his pocket. "I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock." Harry read out.

His aunt stared at him and his uncle scowled. "Platform what?" "Nine and three-quarters." "Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There isn't a platform nine and three-quarters!"

"Sorry, but it's on my ticket." Harry said, pleased he knew something his uncle didn't. He could tell him about the platform's whereabouts and how to get there, but he figured it was only fair, seeing how much information his aunt and uncle kept from him for years. He decided to leave it a mystery, for the time being.

"Barking mad, the lot of them!" Uncle Vernon exclaimed, dragging Harry from his thoughts.

"You'll see, you just wait and you'll see for yourself. We'll take you to King's Cross. We wouldn't if I wasn't going up to London tomorrow, anyway."

"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things civil.

Uncle Vernon's face turned purple as he gritted his teeth "Having that ruddy tail removed before Dudley has to go to HIS school. Now get out of here."

Harry hurried upstairs and busied himself with reading his textbooks once more, until he fell asleep.

Harry woke at 5 AM the next morning. He tried to go back to sleep, but found himself far too excited to fall asleep again. So he rose, got dressed and began pacing his room, being careful not to make too much noise and wake his relatives. After his legs became tired, he checked over his Hogwarts school supply list yet again to make sure he had everything, double checked that everything was packed in his trunk and that Hedwig was secure in her cage.

Checking the alarm clock he had repaired that now sat upon his bedside table and seeing it was now 06:30, he opened his trunk and pulled out one of his books, _Magical Drafts and Potions_ by _Arsenius Jigger_, and began to read. Almost two hours later, Harry heard the Dursleys beginning to stir and hurriedly put his book back and got prepared. In no time, his trunk was loaded into the back of Uncle Vernon's car and they were on their way.

They reached King's Cross at half past ten, and Harry strode confidently towards the barriers between Platform 9 & 10.

Uncle Vernon walked up to him and said "Well, there you have it boy. Platform Nine, and Platform Ten. And your platform should be somewhere in between, shouldn't it? But they don't seem to have built it yet, have they? Have a nice term" he finished, with a nasty grin.

Harry smiled. "Don't worry, I will." he said brightly, and dashed into the barrier. He still closed his eyes as he did so, as sprinting towards an apparently solid brick wall would have you somewhat nervous. As he reached the other side, he immediately looked behind him, wishing he could see the shocked expression on his Uncle's face.

Trying not to think about what would have happened if the barrier _was_ solid, he pushed his trolley towards the train. It was huge and scarlet, while the platform next to it was packed with people, trunks and animals. A sign overhead read "Hogwarts Express, Eleven O'clock." Harry looked behind him to where he had come from, and saw a sign that had the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it. He was really here.

He was not only leaving the Dursley's, but he'd be gone for almost an entire year! He didn't know very much about where he'd be going or the world he was now a part of, but it HAD to be better than life at the Dursley's.

He hurried over to the train. Even with half an hour to spare, he wanted to be perfectly ready when the train began to leave.

Harry struggled to lift his trunk up the steps, and after dropping it painfully on his foot, he put it down and looked around. On another entry point on the train, a sandy-haired boy was struggling with his trunk. Harry got an idea and walked over.

"Hello, would you like help with your trunk?" Harry said

The sandy haired boy put his trunk down and looked at him, breathing heavily. "Thanks, I could use a hand." He had a rather strong Irish accent. "As long as you help me with mine." Harry said, jerking his head in the direction of his trunk. The sandy-haired boy nodded, and together they managed to push the trunk up the steps and onto the floor of the train, where it could be dragged around with ease.

As soon as Harry and the boy were finished with Harry's trunk, the other boy stared at him awkwardly for a few seconds, then spoke up. "Thanks for the help, I've gotta go meet some of me friends." and he hurried off with a wave.

Harry thought his behavior rather odd, but he shrugged it off as he found a compartment. After dragging his trunk into the compartment after him, he went back to the entrance to the carriage to see if he left anything behind, and he spotted the sandy haired boy speaking to who he guessed were his parents.

"Mam, guess who I saw on the train?" "Who?" the woman asked "I think I saw Harry Potter!" "Who?" the man - who Harry guessed was the strange boy's father - asked. "Oh, he's somewhat of a celebrity in our world." the mother answered dismissively. "How do you know, Seamus?" "I saw a bit of his scar through his hair, it really did look like lightning!" "You better have been polite, Seamus." "I was, I swear!" "Alright, alright. Be sure not to bother him, and hurry off to the train. You don't want it leaving without you, do you?" "No mam!" said Seamus, sounding horrified. The boy began approaching and Harry retreated into his compartment, not wanting to be caught eavesdropping.

As he sat back in his seat, he wondered if everyone he met in the wizarding world would be like this. Almost all the people he had met so far were... awed in his presence by an accomplishment he couldn't even remember. Only Hagrid and Mr. Ollivander hadn't quite acted in such a way. He wasn't used to respect or reverence in any amount at the Dursley's, but this was going a bit far.

He just wanted to have a normal existence, a middle ground between being hounded by Dudley and his gang or being bowed to and told how delighted they were to meet him by strangers acting like he was some kind of royalty. Shaking off that line of thought, Harry decided to peer out the window to check the clock. The train would be leaving in 10 minutes.

After trying (unsuccessfully) to lift his trunk into the storage compartment, he retrieved a book from inside and began reading while waiting for the train to leave. While he did spend a great deal of time reading at home, Harry figured he'd more than likely be too excited to concentrate on a book after the train left the station, so he should spend the last few minutes he had, to read. As he read, more and more people boarded the train. He made sure to hide his face behind his book, hoping not to be recognized and get gawked at again. It made him feel uneasy.

Just as the train pulled out of the station, Harry put his book back into his trunk and began starting out the window, watching the scenery go by with increasing speed. His stomach jolted with excitement and mild anxiety. Despite all the time he had spent with Hagrid, he was still, in essence, completely unfamiliar with this new world. All he could hope for was that it was better than the life he had come from.

Just then the compartment door slid open, and the pale boy from Diagon Alley stepped in, flanked by two boys resembling shaved gorillas.

"So it's true then?" he asked. His previously bored, drawling voice had taken on a new note of curiosity. "Harry Potter is on this train carriage. At least that's what Finnigan said."

"Yes." Harry replied.

"So, you're him then? Well, I'm Draco. Draco Malfoy." He extended his hand towards Harry. "I'm Harry Potter." Harry replied, shaking Draco's hand. Although he wasn't sure if he disliked the boy or not, at least he had something resembling manners, so he couldn't be that similar to Dudley, no matter how much he had reminded him of his cousin back in Madam Malkin's.

"A pleasure to meet you" Draco said formally. Harry was somewhat impressed. Most adults he had met were falling over themselves when they met him, and here was an eleven year old appearing nowhere near as impressed with Harry's apparent fame.

"And this is Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle." Draco continued, gesturing towards the large boys in the corridor and taking a seat across from Harry. "Now I know why you didn't appear to understand me when I was talking about Quidditch and the houses. They say you went off to live with muggles. Are they as savage as they say?"

"Well, they were really horrible." Harry said. "At least my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin were. I didn't meet too many muggles other than them, so I can't really say." Draco grimaced. "Could you imagine being a muggle? Going your whole life not doing magic, and not only that, but not even knowing about it?" Draco said.

"Well, until my eleventh birthday when Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley, I didn't know anything about it all, let alone that I was apparently famous and my parents were wizards and that they got... you know. They told me they died in a car crash."

Draco looked horrified. "They actually told you they died in a CAR CRASH? One of those muggle contraptions? What use would a wizard have for one of those? Unbelievable."

"Well, they are the best way to get around if you can't do magic." Harry said. "Are they really? Fascinating." Draco replied, with a face of mild interest.

While Draco seemed slightly intrigued by Harry and his knowledge of Muggles, Harry was wondering what sort of things Draco could tell him about the wizarding world. "So, you say you grew up knowing about magic?"

"Of course!" Draco said, pointing his chin up and looking dignified. "The Malfoy family is among the oldest and wealthiest in Wizarding Britain." he said, sounding as though he had said this exact sentence hundreds of times before.

"So, what can you tell me about Quidditch?" Harry asked, interested.

"Well, it's the very best sport in our world, you see. It has seven players all flying on brooms, and there are multiple positions to play." Draco began.

"There's the Keeper, who guards the three goalposts from anyone trying to score on them with the Quaffle. The Quaffle is the main ball, it's rather large, and the three Chasers, that's another position, attempt to score it through the hoops the Keeper is trying to defend. Each goal is worth ten points, by the way." Draco was talking animatedly, different from before, as though this wasn't something he had rehearsed countless times before.

"Then there's the Beaters. They carry around these brutish bats and smack around another ball, the Bludger. It's smaller than the Quaffle and flies around on it's own, trying to knock players off of their brooms. It's the Beaters' job to keep the Bludger away from their own team and direct it towards the enemy players. Then lastly, there's the Seeker. He's the most important player, by the way." Draco paused for a breath, and Harry was sitting there nodding intently, eager to hear more. It did sound somewhat like football, as Hagrid had said.

"It's the Seeker's job to catch the Golden Snitch. It's the smallest ball of all, and the match doesn't end until the Snitch is caught. The Snitch is worth 150 points, so usually it's whichever team's seeker catches it that wins the game." Draco finished.

"So what about the houses?" Harry asked. He didn't really know that much about them, other than Voldemort was in Slytherin and that Hufflepuffs were thought of as "Duffers"

"Well, there's four of them. Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. They're all named after the founders of Hogwarts. They each have their own unique traits that the founders themselves had and that everyone sorted into that particular house are expected to have." Draco said.

"Slytherin, of course, is the best of them. All my family have been in Slytherin for as long as anyone can remember, and I do expect to end up there as well. Slytherin's value ambition, resourcefulness, cunning, determination and subtlety. Of course, you might have heard somebody say it's the "evil house" or that all dark wizards in history came there, but it's simply not true." Draco continued after scowling slightly.

"They always say that because the Dark Lord was in Slytherin back when he was at school, but they can't really name any other dark wizard who was in Slytherin. Of course, a lot of the Dark Lord's followers were in Slytherin, but he had followers from all the houses, including a one or two well known Gryffindors." He paused, eyeing Harry uncertainly.

"So basically, you shouldn't really listen. They can't really name anyone other than the Dark Lord, and each house has it's share of dark witches and wizards. And if it appears that Slytherin had more, it's only because the other three houses don't want to admit to it."

Harry was pretty sure at this point that Draco was biased in favour of Slytherin, but he decided to wait until Draco was finished describing the houses before he formed his own opinion.

"Then there's Gryffindor." Draco continued. "Their traits are "bravery" (he said this with his fingers making quotation marks in the air) nobility, daring, courage, chivalry, and a bunch of other things that essentially mean the same thing. While it is true that a lot of famous adventurers and warriors were in Gryffindor, something a lot of Gryffindors don't seem to understand is that there's a very fine line between bravery and stupidity combined with recklessness. Knowing when it's best to stand and fight or come back another day when you've got the advantage. That sort of thing. So that's Gryffindor. Basically for those who have more courage than brains." Draco finished.

Harry thought about that for a moment. It did sound nice to be brave and noble and courageous and all those things, but when he thought about it, he was never all that brave. Hadn't he run away from Dudley, rather than stand and fight? Hadn't he always avoided confrontation with his relatives, particularly Dudley, preferring to outwit or outrun them instead?

"Then there's Ravenclaw. There's not as much to them as there is to Slytherin and Gryffindor. They're basically a bunch of anti-social bookworms. Their traits are a desire to learn, intellect and an open mind, but most of them are just weird. They don't talk to people, always with their nose in a book. And when they do finally talk, it's usually about some bizarre idea they had, and then they go and embarrass themselves without even knowing it. Completely socially inept." Draco sniffed.

Harry thought that Draco's assessment was rather unfair, especially seeing as Draco hadn't even been to Hogwarts to interact with Ravenclaws before. But he didn't really think of himself as exceptionally intelligent. He'd never exactly done well in school. If he did, he was punished for outperforming Dudley or accused of cheating or both. And he never usually went out of his way to study, as extra knowledge didn't do him much good in class, lest he do better then Dudley.

"And finally, there's Hufflepuff. The other houses tend to think of them as a joke, even Ravenclaw. They're sort of the house of leftovers. They're not especially daring like Gryffindor, they're not cunning or ambitious or resourceful like Slytherin, and they're not even know-it-alls like Ravenclaw. They say Hufflepuffs value hard work, loyalty, dedication and fairness. Which I always thought of as pointless." Draco said with a slight sneer.

"You can usually choose to do hard work or be loyal and dedicated to something, but the other houses' qualities aren't something you can just choose to do. Sure, you can do something reckless and claim you're being brave, but most of it comes as a natural talent that's unique to each house." With that, Draco had completed his lecture on the houses, leaving Harry to think for a moment.

Harry wondered what house he'd be in. Although he wouldn't exactly call himself brave and courageous and daring, he hadn't really been given many chances to prove that he was. While he was forced to do hard work, he figured that was different than being a hard worker. And he never really had anyone to be loyal to. As for Ravenclaw, he wondered how intelligent you needed to be to be accepted into Ravenclaw. That left Slytherin.

He wasn't what you'd call ambitious, but he was resourceful, in a way. Making games with old household objects he found in his cupboard, wearing and repairing his old Sellotaped glasses and shoes, living off of much smaller portions of food than Dudley got. As for cunning, he did make (in his opinion) clever insults directed at Dudley that his cousin rarely even figured out, and he did devise the clever scheme to meet the mailman at the corner. And it would have worked, too, if Uncle Vernon hadn't been waiting on the mat. All in all, he found it more and more likely that he might be sorted into Slytherin. At first he had his misgivings with what Hagrid had said about it being the house of Dark Wizards, but now that Draco had cleared up a lot of it, it sounded alright.

He was pulled from his musings by Draco standing up. "I'm off to go find some of my other friends, I guess I'll see you at the sorting. Let's hope you're in Slytherin. You can count on me to be around to make sure you don't hang out with the wrong sort, I'll look out for you there. Bye." and with that, Draco left with Crabbe and Goyle in toe.

Harry thought about what Draco had said. First, he had said "other friends" did that mean he considered Harry his friend? Besides Hagrid, Harry had never really had any friends before. Nobody wanted to hang out with that odd Potter, who everyone knew Dudley and his gang despised. But not only that, but Draco was from an apparently rich and respectable family, and he wanted to be friends with _him_?

He had also said he'd help make sure he doesn't hang out with "the wrong sort" whatever that meant. Harry guessed he meant "Bad" witches and wizards. Ones who were going dark, like Hagrid had said some do.

Alone once more, Harry pulled out _The Standard Book Of Spells, Grade 1_ by _Miranda Goshawk_ and began to read, temporarily forgetting there was passing scenery to gawk at. A few minutes into the book, he came across the Repairing Charm. Noting his broken, taped together glasses and falling apart trainers, he pulled out his wand and decided to do the first bit of magic since Olivander's shop.

Just as he was pointing his wand at his glasses, preparing to say the incantation, a girl with bushy brown hair walked in and started speaking.

"Have you seen a toad? a boy named Neville has lost on-" she stopped in mid sentence "Oh, are you doing magic?" she sat down next to him, eyeing him eagerly.

"Er..." Harry said uncertainly. "I was just going to try and fix my glasses and maybe my shoes." "Well," the girl replied "Can I see? I'm always excited to see magic. I was ever so surprised when I got my letter, my parents were shocked but happy nonetheless, it was an explanation to the odd things that would occasionally happen around me. I've practiced a few spells myself, and they've all worked for me. I've learned the entire set of books by heart so I can be as ready as possible, as I'm the first in my family to have any magic at all. My name is Hermione Granger, by the way." She said this all in one breath, and very quickly.

"Oh, er, my name is Harry Potter." Harry said, in somewhat of a daze. Remembering what he had been doing, he waved his wand in the prescribed manner, and uttered the incantation "_Reparo"_

Instantly, the cracks in his lenses fixed themselves, the Sellotape fell off and the frame was all in one piece once more.

"Well done." said Hermione. "Are you really Harry Potter? I've read about you in some other books I got for extra reading. You're in _The Rise and Fall Of The Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events Of The Twentieth Century_."

"Am I?" said Harry. He felt somewhat worried about the fact that she had learned the entire set of books by heart, in addition to reading some extra books with him in them. Although he did read frequently, he'd barely even finished all of his books, and he had by no means memorized the entire thing.

"Yes, you are! Didn't you know? If I was famous, I'd want to read about myself as much as possible." Hermione said.

"Well," Harry began "I was only allowed to spend money on the books on the school list. I might take some books out of the library once we get to Hogwarts then."

"You should definitely check out some of the interesting ones I've bought. In addition to _Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events Of The Twentieth Century_, there's also _Hogwarts: A History_. The history behind the school is fascinating! Most of the other books I brought are really just extra information for some classes." Hermione said.

Harry was feeling somewhat intimidated by Hermione. He couldn't remember if he'd finished reading the entire set of books, let alone memorized them perfectly, and here this girl had apparently memorized the whole set and even read several more books. He was beginning to worry everyone would be far more prepared then he was.

Just as he opened his mouth to reply, a round faced boy stepped into the compartment, and he was holding a toad.

"I've found him!" he said excitedly. "I was asking around in some of the compartments, and when I asked this boy named Cedric about Trevor being missing, he got up, waved his wand and said something, and Trevor came flying up to me! it was so cool!"

"Do you know what spell it was? It sounds useful." said Hermione, looking thoughtful. "No, sorry" the round faced boy said. "It was something with an A, I think, then he said Trevor's name. Thanks for helping me look for him anyway, Hermione-" Just then the boy noticed Harry. His eyes darted up to Harry's scar.

"O-oh, sorry." the boy stuttered. He fumbled a sweaty hand forward. "My name is Neville Longbottom, I'm pleased to meet you." Harry shook Neville's hand, somewhat amused. If he thought he felt nervous, it was nothing compared to this boy. "Well, um. Nice meeting you, I've got to go." and with that, Longbottom hurried off.

"Well, he was kind of... excitable." Harry said uncertainly.

"Oh, he's just nervous. His grandmother is very strict, and she bought Trevor for him, and he was so worried he'd lost him." Hermione said. "Do you mind if I stay here? While I was looking for Trevor, I noticed most of the other compartments were full. And I must say, the corridors were filled with people running back and forth, acting very childish."

Harry shook his head.

"So, what house do you think you'll be in?" he asked Hermione.

"Well, I've read about them, and nobody really knows what house they'll be in untill they get sorted, do they?" she asked.

"No, I guess not."

Sorted? Draco hadn't said anything about that, but he should have known there'd be some way they ended up in their houses.

"I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, and my parents certainly thought I'd end up there. I do study a lot, and do very well in school. In fact, I'm usually in the top of my classes."

This put Harry somewhat at ease. If what she said was true, not all people studied or read as much as her, so he wouldn't be the only one who hadn't memorized the entire set of books.

"Although it would be nice to be in Gryffindor." Hermione continued. "It's the house Headmaster Dumbledore himself was in, and he's apparently the greatest wizard in centuries and everyone admires him. How about you?"

"Er, I don't really know." he confessed. "I don't really feel all that brave or loyal or smart or ambitious, but from what I've heard, Slytherin is likely."

"Really?" said Hermione. "I've heard lots of people say it's the house of dark wizards, which I find to be very narrow minded. I've looked into it, and there have only been two dark lords who went to Hogwarts in the last three centuries, and one of them wasn't even in Slytherin." "I think it has to do with Voldemort. I mean, he's recent in everyone's minds, right? He was around just over ten years ago - what?" Harry stopped speaking at the expression on Hermione's face, one of surprise and curiosity.

"You said You-Know-Who's name. Nobody I've talked to does, and all the books say Dumbledore is the only one who says it. Even these days, people are too scared to say it."

"Well, it just gets confusing after a while." Harry said. "And going around saying "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" makes him seem a lot more creepy than if you just said Voldemort."

"Well, most people say Dumbledore is the only one who uses his name because he was the only one that You-Know-Who was afraid of. But it does seem rather superstitious, doesn't it?"

"I don't mean to be brave or anything, it just slips out."

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment there was a great clattering, and a plump, dimpled witch pushing a trolley stopped in front of their compartment. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" she asked. Harry got up immediately. He hadn't noticed until now how hungry he had gotten while the countryside flew by. And he had _never_ been given sweets at the Dursleys. Even if his Aunt and Uncle ever got some for him, Dudley would have stolen it from him right away, even if it made him sick.

And now with his pockets clinking with wizard money, he was going to buy himself a bunch of Mars Bars. Or perhaps Oreos? but when he stood up and eyed the cart's offerings, he didn't see Mars Bars or Oreos. Instead he saw Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands, Pumpkin Pasties, and countless other things. Deciding to buy a bit of everything, Harry sat back down with his arms full and his pockets notably lighter.

"Anything for you, dearie?" the witch asked Hermione.

"No thanks." Hermione said, shaking her head. With that, the witch pushing the trolley left.

"Why don't you want anything?" asked Harry.

"My parents are dentists." Hermione said. "They disapprove of sugary snacks like that. They say it'll rot my teeth." she sniffed.

"What, you mean they never let you eat any candy or anything?" Harry said, surprised. He thought he'd be the only one who had never been allowed sweets in his life.

"I do get to have some at Halloween, but it's always special sugar free sweets." Hermione said. "They'd always get rid of all the sugary ones."

"You know they're not here now." Harry said, offering her a Cauldron Cake after he finished his own. They were quite tasty.

"I couldn't do that! Go behind their back and eat sweets the moment they're gone?" Hermione asked, horrified.

"But they'll never give you permission. You're going to go your whole life without ever eating regular sweets?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, that may sound silly, but I don't really need to. Plus they did say it's unhealthy." she said, looking unsure.

Harry smiled slightly. He was ready to disobey the Dursleys on a moment's notice, especially seeing as how they kept the wizarding world a secret from him. He had already spoken to more people his own age in this one train trip than he probably had during all his years at school. Clearly, things they kept from him were more than likely to make him happy. Sweets, being a wizard, that sort of thing.

While Hermione wasn't allowed sweets just like him, it was for a completely different reason. Her parents were not allowing sweets because they cared about her and wanted her to be healthy, and she couldn't imagine sneaking around behind their backs. They were her apparently loving parents! Unthinkable.

It was just amusing how they were both not allowed the same thing, but for entirely different reasons.

"How unhealthy? Let's just say you eat sweets on the train ride over here. Even if you do this every time, that's only 7 train rides. Is really eating sweets one day a year for seven years going to make all your teeth fall out?" Harry said with a slight grin.

"Well no, of course not."

"Well, try one! They're really good. I've never had sweets before either, my cousin would've taken them even if I was allowed any by my Aunt and Uncle. They kept it all to themselves."

"That doesn't sound very nice." said Hermione, with a frown. "Well, they didn't really like me." Harry said grimly. "I never knew why until I got my letter, then it made sense. They hate magic."

"You mean like Muggles in the middle ages?" "Sort of. It's not like they tried to burn me or anything." Harry said, thinking of the witch burnings he'd read about in A _History Of Magic_.

"They just... punished me over the littlest things, and made me do all the housework and cook breakfast every day, and whenever I accidently did magic and I didn't know what it was, I'd be shut it my cupboard for days and I'd have to sneak food from the kitchen once they'd all gone to bed."

"That's horrible!" Hermione exclaimed, shocked. "All the books say most muggles are more tolerant these days, and my parents certainly were! They were very proud of me for getting accepted into the most prestigious school of magic in Europe! Didn't you tell anyone? Did you say your _cupboard?! Y_ou should have gone to the police!"

"No, it's fine now. Once I started getting the letters, they started acting weird. I guess they were afraid of me or something, because they let me sleep in my cousin's spare bedroom."

Hermione was still frowning at him, so he decided to change the subject by handing her a liquorice wand. She accepted it and began eating it and looking like she was about to say something.

Realizing he had probably said too much, he decided to steer the topic away from his relatives by holding up a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. "What d'you think every flavour means?" he asked her. She shrugged, looking thoughtful.

"Wizarding food is different from normal food. Earlier I saw someone unwrap one of those chocolate frogs," she said, nodding towards one of the packages next to Harry "and it got up and started hopping around. They're not alive of course, but they're enchanted to move around."

Harry opened the beans and pulled out a funny looking grey one. As soon as he put it in his mouth, he began coughing and sputtering.

"What's the matter?"

"P-Pep-er! Pepper!" he managed to get out. "It was a pepper flavoured bean. I guess they mean every flavour." he said with a grimace, once he stopped coughing. Deciding to be more wary of these beans, he began carefully selecting them and taking cautious nibbles. He did get a few normal flavours like jam and chocolate, but he also got grass and sprouts and pizza. After that, he opened a Chocolate Frog for himself while handing one to Hermione.

As soon as he opened it, the frog hopped off the seat and onto the window. It was climbing towards the opening, hoping to get away. He quickly grabbed it before it could succeed in it's bid for freedom, and took a bite out of it. It tasted just like regular chocolate, thankfully. After the beans, he was ready to believe anything.

"You know they come with a card about a famous Witch or Wizard, right?" asked Hermione, reading her own.

Harry looked down and noticed that there was a tiny wizard in the back of his chocolate frog card. He was wearing half moon glasses, a purple cloak, and had a large silver beard. Underneath that the card read:

Albus Dumbledore

Current Headmaster of Hogwarts, Considered by many to be the greatest wizard of modern times. Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindewald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel.

Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

"So this is Dumbledore." Harry said, holding up the card for Hermione to see. She glanced over at it, interested. Once she was done reading, she offered her own card, Fulbert The Fearful.

The time soon flew by, with them eating chocolate frogs and exchanging the cards inside them for the other to read, until one of them noticed it was getting dark out. "We should change into our school robes." Hermione said. "I'll be back when I'm changed, you can use the compartment to put yours on while I'm gone."

And with that, she went off to the bathroom to change. Harry quickly changed into his own black school robes and tie. They were quite comfortable, and the pocket in his robes held his wand better than the one on his jeans. Shortly afterwards, Hermione returned, and she looked as nervous as he felt. They spent the rest of the trip in anxious silence.

In what seemed like no time, the train began to slow down as the sky darkened even more. Finally, the train pulled to a stop and Harry and Hermione left the train car, about to take their luggage with them when a voice echoed through the train, telling them to leave it behind. With a shrug, they stepped off the train.

It wasn't long before Harry heard Hagrid's booming voice calling out over the crowd: "Firs' years this way! firs' years over here!" Swinging a large lantern, he noticed Harry and waved. "Alrigh' there, Harry? Off yeh go, the boats are tha' way." He said, pointing with a massive hand. Harry and Hermione walked down the winding pathway that seemed to be leading towards docks on the shore of a lake.

Once there, they were shortly joined by Hagrid. "Alrigh', no more'n four to a boat." With that, Hagrid took an entire boat to himself and set off. Harry and Hermione were joined by Longbottom and a red haired boy, and soon the entire fleet of little boats was following in Hagrid's wake. Up ahead, Hagrid called out to everyone: "Pretty soon you'll be getting your firs' view of Hogwarts!"

And soon enough, as they rounded a peninsula covered in trees, they looked up and saw a magnificent castle. Dozens of people let loose "Ooohs" and "ahhhs" of amazement. Countless turrets, towers so tall you had to crane your neck to see their tops, countless bright windows pouring light out into the night. This is where he would be spending the next seven years learning to do magic. It was all so wonderful.

Shortly afterwards they passed through a curtain of low hanging vines, and stopped at another dock. After all the students had disembarked from their boats, they followed Hagrid up a pathway that lead to a giant oak door. Raising a huge hand, Hagrid knocked three times.

Author's Note:

Please review to let me know if I'm doing this right. And remember to be constructive.


	2. Chapter 2: The Sorting

I couldn't in good conscience change the Sorting Ceremony speech McGonagall gave, as things haven't changed enough to justify her speech being any different than it was in canon. Anywho, here's my attempt at introducing some new characters.

**Harry Potter and the House Of The Serpent**

Chapter 2: The Sorting

The door immediately swung open to reveal a rather stern looking witch. She was wearing emerald green robes and had her hair done up in a tight bun. Harry got the odd feeling that he should be sure to stay on her good side.

"Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here." She said, after Hagrid had said something. Harry wasn't paying attention. He was staring at the gigantic, gleaming, marble staircase, the cavernous entrance hall they had stepped into. It was so big that everyone's voices echoed and so tall he couldn't make out the ceiling. It gave off a cozy, warm atmosphere, despite it's great size, most likely because of the torches lining the walls.

Harry was pulled from his thoughts when everyone began to follow the woman across the hall and into a small, empty chamber. Just as he was entering, Harry noticed a gigantic doorway to the right, and he could hear hundreds of voices coming from behind it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said the woman. "I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress."

"The start-of-term feast will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you must first be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are at Hogwarts, your house will be something of a family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

Harry privately hoped that whatever house he ended up in, it was a better family than the one he had come from.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has it's own noble history and each has produced outstanding Witches and Wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will become a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Harry already knew about the houses, but he hadn't heard about the whole house points system. He'd have to do his best to not get in trouble in class. Most of the time he get in trouble in class back at his old school, it was for doing (what he knew now) was magic. But that was the point of this school, doing magic. Wasn't it? As for the earning house points thing, he had no idea how he'd accomplish that.

He really needed to calm himself down, he was having pointless thoughts spawned by fear.

"The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up while you wait." She gazed around the crowd while she said that, her eyes resting on a few students in particular, notably Longbottom and a red haired boy with dirt on his nose.

But Harry was hardly paying attention. What would they have to do to be sorted? And in front of the whole school? His stomach gave a horrible jolt. Usually being picked for things in front of people didn't end well.

Like when being picked for football teams back at his old school, he was always picked last, and people made fun of him for it. He doubted it was because he wasn't any good, because he considered himself at least near average, but because nobody wanted Dudley and his gang to think that they liked Harry.

All thoughts of what traits of which house he embodied disappeared. The only house he felt he belonged to at this point was one for people who were nervous and a bit queasy.

Nearby, Seamus, the sandy haired boy, was asking the red head with the dirt on his nose how they got sorted. Harry listened in eagerly. "I don't know, but my brother Fred said it hurts a lot. Some kind of test."

Harry was even more disturbed by that. Never mind the hurting a lot part, but a test? He barely knew any magic yet! He had only managed to fix his glasses, and he highly doubted the test would consist only of fixing an everyday item.

Beside him, Hermione scoffed. "It says clearly in Hogwarts: A History that you try on the Sorting Hat. They didn't say how, but you just put on the hat and it tells you which house you're in. Honestly. Either his brother was lying or he's trying to scare everyone." That made Harry feel a bit better. Trying on a hat? that didn't sound too bad. He wondered what he'd have to do with the hat. He thought briefly of the rather foolish muggle "magicians" pulling stuffed rabbits out of hats.

Suddenly everyone in the room gasped and Harry looked up to see several pearly white figures float through the apparently solid wall. While gliding towards the group of new students, they seemed to be having a discussion about someone or something named Peeves. "Haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name, and you know, he isn't even a real ghost."

Just then one of the ghosts (as Harry now guessed they were) resembling a fat little monk noticed them. "New students!" he exclaimed, smiling. "I hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know." Somewhere nearby Draco scoffed.

"Move along now." came a sharp voice. Professor McGonagall had returned. "The Sorting ceremony is about to begin. Form a line and follow me." and with that, Professor McGonagall was leading them through the giant doors Harry had heard voices coming from behind earlier. He now knew this was the way to the Great Hall, where the rest of the school was awaiting the Sorting.

Harry was really getting nervous now, and his legs were beginning to quake. He tried to distract himself by looking up at the ceiling, and was mildly surprised to see it looked like a starry night sky. "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read that in Hogwarts: A History as well." Hermione said behind him. He smiled in spite of his nervousness, as apparently citing obscure knowledge seemed to be her coping mechanism for the anxiety they all had to be feeling right now.

They all came to a stop as Professor McGonagall put down an old four-legged stool, and placed an old, patched and frayed pointed wizard's hat atop it. A seam near the brim opened up like a mouth, and the hat began to sing.

As soon as the hat concluded it's song, the whole hall burst into applause and the hat bowed to each of the four tables. Judging by the words of the song, Hermione seemed to be right about only having to put the hat on.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward, carrying a long roll of parchment, and began calling out names.

"Abbot, Hannah!" was the first one called, and a blond girl with pigtails stumbled forward, looking incredibly nervous. Harry wondered if it'd be worse for you to be called near the beginning before you had time to calm yourself, or if it would be a good thing as it'd be over sooner. Feeling too anxious to think it through, he just continued viewing the sorting.

After Hannah Abbot was sorted into Hufflepuff, Susan Bones was called up and she, too, was placed in Hufflepuff.

The first non Hufflepuff came right after, in the form of Terry Boot, who went swiftly into Ravenclaw. Next went Mandy Brocklehurst, and she joined Terry at the Ravenclaw table.

Lavender Brown stepped forward, and became the first new Gryffindor. The table on the far left exploded with cheers.

Millicent Bulstrode was called next, and became the first Slytherin.

The table on the far right began clapping. As Harry watched her walk by, he decided then and there to _never_ cross somebody who looked like _that_. She looked like she could easily thump his cousin Dudley.

After a few more students were sorted, Hermione Granger was called up. She walked briskly towards the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. She took the longest to sort of all the students so far. The hat sat on her head for nearly three solid minutes before declaring her a Gryffindor.

Soon after, Neville Longbottom, the boy who lost his toad, was called up, and after a length of time almost as long as Hermione's, he, too, was declared a Gryffindor.

Harry was starting to get horrible thoughts now, as most people do when they're nervous. What if the hat took so long to sort him, that McGonagall eventually took it off and said that they'd made a mistake and he'd have to go back to the Dursleys? He tried not to think about it.

Eventually, Draco Malfoy stepped forward, and Harry was relieved to see that he looked somewhat nervous. Almost instantly after putting the hat on, it declared him a Slytherin. As he walked over to the Slytherin table, Harry noticed Crabbe and Goyle sitting there already. They must have been sorted when he wasn't paying attention.

Seeing as Harry knew the alphabet quite well, there weren't that many people left before his own name was called. Somebody with the surname of Moon, then a boy called Theodore Nott, then a girl with a face like a pug, then Sally Anne-Perks.

And right after...

"Potter, Harry" McGonagall called.

Harry stepped forward amid a storm of whispers

"Potter, did she say?"

"_The_ Harry Potter?"

As Harry nervously sat down on the stool, the last thought he had was that he was glad that the hat slipped so far down his face that he wouldn't have to see the crowd gawking at him anymore.

"Hmmm, very interesting." A small voice inside his hear said. Harry supposed this was the hat? He hadn't heard it say anything to any of the other students, other then what house they were in.

Was the hat talking inside his head? "Yes, only you can hear me. This voice is inside your head." said the hat, confirming Harry's idle suspiscion.

"A challenge I see. Where to put you... where to put you. You don't have a bad mind I see. You're smart enough when you apply yourself to be in Ravenclaw, but intellect isn't the only thing Ravenclaw wants."

"You have plenty of courage as well, but there's also lots of talent and a thirst to prove yourself. You've got lots to live up to, eh?" the hat continued.

I guess, Harry thought. All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, treating him as some sort of savior for an event he could barley even remember, and wasn't due to any degree of skill on his part.

"Lots to live up to when you're the boy-who-lived." Crooned the hat. "You could be as great as they say you are, you know. You have plenty of courage, you could make a nice Gryffindor, no doubt about that. But if you want to be great, the best choice would be SLYTHERIN!" The hat yelled the last word for the entire hall to hear.

Harry was so relieved to have been sorted that he took the hat off and marched over to the far right table in a daze, distantly noting that the Slytherin table was cheering louder for him than any table had cheered for any student, while a majority of the other three tables was dead silent.

The older students at the end of the Slytherin table were even triumphantly chanting: "We've Got Potter!" in the direction of their counterparts in the other three houses.

Harry sat down, thinking only of how glad he was to be sorted, and into a house where he at least knew somebody, like Draco or Hermione.

"Well done, Potter." said a rather large and imposing boy who was seated across from him.

Soon his nerves wore off and Harry continued to observe the sorting. There weren't many students left now. After Dean Thomas and Lisa Turpin became a Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, respectively, Ronald Weasley, the boy with dirt on his nose, shuffled forward looking slightly green and was proclaimed a Gryffindor.

Harry began looking up at the high table where the teachers sat. He saw Dumbledore, recognizing him from the chocolate frog card, sipping from a goblet whilst seated upon a golden chair.

On one end of the table sat Hagrid, who caught Harry's eye and raised his goblet towards him. Harry grinned at him and resumed eyeing the high table, just as the sorting finished when Blaise Zabini became a Slytherin and came over to sit down.

Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment, took the stool and the Sorting Hat and left the hall.

Harry just remembered that this was supposed to be a feast as he looked up and down Slytherin table and spotted the numerous empty silver plates. The sweets on the train felt ages ago, and he was starving.

Just then Professor Dumbledore stood up and beamed at all the students, as though this was the happiest moment of his life, and began speaking.

"Welcome!" he began "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before we begin our banquet, I have a few words to say to you all. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" and with that, Dumbledore sat down. Everyone began clapping and cheering. Harry did too, but he couldn't help but voice a question.

"Is he... a bit mad?" Harry asked uncertainly

"The short version?" Blaise Zabini, who was seated next to Harry asked. "Yes. He's quite an eccentric man. He's regarded as the greatest wizard alive, and mother says you don't get there by being conformist."

Harry nodded, only now noting Dumbledore's flowing purple robes, emblazoned with stars and moons and other celestial bodies. While all wizards seemed to dress somewhat oddly, Dumbledore was the most... colourfully dressed of the teachers.

"Could you pass the carrots?" a rabbity looking boy who Harry thought was named Nott asked.

"Huh?" Harry looked down at the previously empty plates and trays, only to see that they had been filled with all manners of food. Bacon, pork, chicken, beef, potatoes, carrots and numerous other vegetables, and far too many other things to count.

"Oh, er sure." Harry stammered. He quickly handed the boy the plate of carrots and began loading up his own silver dish with a bit of everything.

"House elves." Nott continued, nodding towards the mountains of food.

"House elves?"

"Little servant creatures, they work in the kitchens beneath the hall. They use their magic to clean and cook and look after the place. They use magic to send the food up through the tables."

Harry remembered vaugley that he had read about House Elves in one of his school books, back when he was at Privet Drive.

"So, is Draco telling the truth when he says you went off to live with muggles?" a girl across the table from him asked.

"Well, yeah." Harry said. The last thing he wanted to talk about now was the Dursleys.

"Sorry to hear that." the girl continued with a slightly wrinkled nose. She reached across the table to shake his hand "Daphne Greengrass, pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Harry shook her hand. He was trying his best to be polite. He was wondering if everyone in Slytherin were from old, rich, wizarding families like Draco.

"And I'm Theodore Nott. Pleasure." The rabbity boy next to Harry shook his hand too.

"I'm Pansy Parkinson." said a girl who began to stand up, when a voice called down the table.

"Let him eat in peace you lot! Honestly." Draco was leaning back from his seat to look down at Harry's end of the table with a disapproving face.

Harry grinned and waved at him and resumed eating his dinner now that the hand shaking storm had been averted.

A few mintues into his meal, with very few people other then a handful of older students were talking, Harry decided to strike up a conversation.

"So were all of you wizard raised?" Harry asked. Everyone around him nodded, looking anywhere between dignified and offended.

"So, what's it like growing up knowing about magic?"

"Well, it's obviously frusturating having to wait all those years to go to Hogwarts and get your own wand. I had to settle for sneaking my mother's wand away when she wasn't looking. As if I was going to wait untill I was eleven." Daphne said.

Everyone laughed a bit at that.

"You could always do Quidditch." Theodore said.

"Quidditch," Daphne huffed "is a brute sport. As if I have any interest going up on a broom and playing with a bunch of balls."

"It is not a brute sport!" Theodore protested. "Father says it helps you hone your hand-eye co-ordination and lets you think clearer. And excercise is always good."

Daphne waved a dismissive hand, indicating the conversation was over. "So, what are muggles like?" she asked Harry.

"Well, I didn't get along with the ones I lived with, but most of them arne't like that. They mostly keep to themselves. Hagrid seemed to say alot of their inventions were weird, even though alot of them serve the same purpose as magic does." Harry said, gesturing towards the food.

"My cousin wanted a dumwaiter, it's a kind of tiny lift you put food into, and it delivers it to the upper floors of a house, kind of like the house elves."

"Then they have airplanes, which I guess are like brooms. They fly from place to place in them, and they go really fast." Everyone around him was paying rapt attention. Harry was amused they could be as fascinated with ordinary "muggle" things as he was with _magic_.

"Then there's an escalator, which I always found fun. They're a flight of stairs that move by themselves. You only have to go on the first step, and it'll take you to the top." Harry said, remembering the broken one in London when he was with Hagrid.

Blaise Zabini made a face. "Weird." he said. Everyone other than Harry nodded confidently. As they returned to their meal, Harry glanced up at the high table once more. Professor McGongall had returned, and she was sitting next to Professor Dumbledore. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet, and Professor Quirrel, now donning an odd purple turban, was talking to a Professor with long, greasy hair and a rather hooked nose.

As Harry looked up at him, the mysterious Professor locked eyes with Harry and gave him an odd questioning look. As he did this, a sharp, needle-like pain shot through Harry's scar. Harry clapped a hand to his forhead and supressed a gasp.

"What's the matter?" Blaise asked.

"N-nothing. Just a bit of a headache." Harry lied. It was completley bizzare. The pain left as quick as it came. Harry looked back up at the high table, and saw the Professor was once again speaking to Professor Quirrel.

"Who's that speaking to Professor Quirrel?" Harry asked in what he hoped was a casual manner.

"You know Quirrel but you don't know him?" Daphne demanded. Harry shook his head.

"He's our head of house, Professor Snape. He teaches potions. How d'you know Quirrel?"

"I met him in Diagon Alley with Hagrid when I got all my supplies." Harry explained.

"That reminds me, why were you with Hagrid? He's just a gamekeeper." Blaise asked.

"He's the one who delivered my letter and told me I was magic and that I'm famous." Harry said

"WHAT?" exclaimed Theodore, Blaise and Daphne at the same time.

"Well, they kept the whole magic thing from me untill Hagrid told me." Harry explained.

"They kept all that from you?" Daphne asked, looking disgusted.

"An atrocity." said Blaise. Daphne nodded solemly.

"You know, when you return home next summer, don't tell them that you're not allowed to do magic. That way you can keep them under your thumb." Theodore said, with a smirk.

"I'll do that, but it might not even be nessecary." Harry replied with a smile, thinking of how nervous his relatives were around him the month or so after he returned from Diagon Alley.

Just then a ghost floated by, with a gaunt face and blank staring eyes, and he seemed to be covered in what looked awfully like blood.

"Is that blood on him?" Harry whispered. The large boy who had congratulated Harry on making Slytherin earlier, responded. "That's the Bloody Baron, Slytherin House ghost. Nobody knows how he got all bloody, but whenever somebody asks him they get haunted for weeks. If you do get on his good side, occasionally he'll scare the other houses for you." he snickered.

"The name is Flint, by the way. Marcus Flint. Captain of Slytherin House Qudditch Team." he continued, puffing out his chest.

A short while later, all the plates cleared just as Harry finished his treacle tart, and Professor Dumbledore stood once more to adress the hall.

"Ahem - Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

As he said this, Dumbledore's twinkling eyes looked over at a pair of red-heads sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"I have been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the halls." Dumbledore continued.

"Quidditch Trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house team should contact Madam Hooch."

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to all those who do not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore finished.

"Is he joking?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"Probably not." Marcus Flint answered. "He occasionally says odd things like this, and it's usually best to just shut up and do what he says."

"And now, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried. Several people around Harry groaned and grimaced, but they all joined in anyway.

Once the school song was finished, Dumbledore spoke up again: "Ah, Music, a magic beyond all we do here. And now, bedtime! Off you trot!"

With that, the entire school rose. Harry and the other Slytherin first years were approached by an older student who was wearing a badge with a large letter "P" on it.

"You kids first years?" he asked gruffly. They all nodded. "I'm the Slytherin Prefect, follow me and I'll show you the way to our common room. Move it!" he barked.

Harry was reminded somewhat of Uncle Vernon, but it was a decidedly different way. This Prefect reminded him more of a soldier in the army in one of those movies Uncle Vernon would watch rather than Uncle Vernon himself; Very strict and tough, but not actually malevolent.

Harry and the other first years followed the prefect to a marble staircase leading downwards from the Entrance Hall, and into what he presumed were the dungeons.

Onward they trudged for nearly ten minutes, marching through corridors and past tapestries, until finally they reached a stop at an apparently blank stretch of wall.

The Prefect spoke up "This is the entrance to the common room, memorize where it is and you won't get lost. Say the password to it and the entrance will show up. Got it?" he said, glowering at them.

The first years nodded nervously.

"Good." and with that, he turned towards the blank stretch of wall and said: "Subterfuge."

The blank wall began melting away to reveal a polished wooden frame surrounding a portrait, which instantly swung open to admit them into the Slytherin common room.

As Harry stepped through the portrait, he examined the room around him. It was _awesome_! On the far side of the room was a huge pane of glass with a snake engraved on it. He couldn't tell if the glass was stained green, or if it was just the color of the** lake** outside. They were clearly underground and underwater.

The walls were made of solid stone, panelled by rich, dark wood. There were countless portraits on the walls, and there was a roaring fireplace on one side of the room, surrounded by black leather couches and green armchairs.

There was a soft, silken green and silver rug in front of the fireplace, and further back in the room were countless stools and tables of all shapes and sizes, all some shade of black or green or silver. Past all the tables, was a single passageway leading downwards.

Before he could explore the common room any further, the portrait entrance opened once more to reveal Professor Snape gliding in, with his robes billowing. Harry couldn't help but get the impression of a bat or perhaps a vampire in one of those old muggle movies.

"I am Professor Snape, Potions Master and Head Of Slytherin House." he said, addressing the first years. Although he spoke rather quietly, his mere presence seemed to silence the entire common room.

"Even if the Sorting Hat chose you for this house, you still have a long way to go. I will not have you embarrassing this house, or by extension, myself, with your actions." he continued.

Staring piercingly at each first year in turn, his eyes lingered on Harry's for a few seconds longer then they had on any of the other students, and he gave Harry another odd... _searching_ look. This time, not accompanied by his scar burning, thankfully.

"Slytherin is the house of the cunning and the clever, the ambitious and the determined, the resourceful and the subtle. While we aren't cowards by any stretch of the imagination, we do not blindly charge into situations beyond our comprehension like Gryffindors. We do not believe pointless facts and statistics are all you need to get through life like Ravenclaws, and we are not as naïve and trusting as Hufflepuffs."

"In short, Slytherin is the house of the winners. The hat chose you because you have the potential to be great. Do not waste it. Do not disappoint me."

After glaring sternly at them all, Snape spoke once more "This concludes my start of term address. Follow my words wisely and you shall succeed. Now, I suggest you all get some rest."

And with that, Professor Snape swept smoothly from the room, robes billowing once more.

One of the older students snickered. "I know that speech word for word by now. He says it every year to new first years. Look at their faces, it's always the same every year. Scares the daylights out of 'em."

"You can't argue with the results." and older girl spoke up. "If Professor Snape needs to scare them into being successful, so be it."

Several older students nodded in approval.

As the first years all started to wander awkwardly around the room and distanced themselves from the older students, Daphne Greengrass began hurrying around, gathering all the first years in a tight-nit group. Dragging a blond girl towards Harry, she began talking.

"Seeing as you were raised by those awful muggles, you must hardly know anybody in the wizard world. I'm here to fix that." she said pompously.

"This here is Tracey Davis. You might have a little in common with her; one of her parents was a muggle, while the other was a wizard. Or a witch. It dosen't matter." she continued.

"Pleased to meet you." Harry said awkwardly. Tracy nodded and retreated to the other side of the room. Everything seemed so formal in Slytherin, espescially near Daphne.

"This here is Pansy Parkinson." Daphne proclaimed, gesturing towards the girl with a pug-like face. Pansy Parkinson looked affronted and glared at Daphne.

"As if I need a Greengrass introducing me." Pansy scoffed. "My mother and father are personal friends of the minister of magic himself!"

Rolling her eyes at the escalating argument, the stout girl Harry saw sorted into Slytherin stepped forward and introduced herself as Millicent Bulstrode. Harry's instinct not to anger her increased as he noted how firm her handshake was.

"Anyway, that's Millicent Bulstrode, she was named after Minister For Magic Millicent Bagnold and-"

"OI! YOU LOT! OFF TO BED" barked the Prefect from before, thankfully cutting Daphne's awkward introductions to an end.

The tired first years now headed off to the downward leading passageway at the other end of the room. Harry didn't realize how tired he was until now, and he idly wondered if they put some sort of potion to make you drowsy, in the food.

The first years marched down the passage way, and came to a large, bare, circular room with seven passages. Over the passage nearest to the entrance, hung a sign that read "First Years"

After following this passage, they encountered a fork in the passage. One leading left, apparently to the girl's dormitories, and the one on the right leading to the boy's.

Following this one, they came upon a narrow hallway with six doors along it's length. Over each door hung a placard with a name on it.

Finding his own name hanging over the one on the far right, Harry realized the door had no handle. As he searched the door for some way to open it, he rested his hand upon a random point on the door and it slid sideways, revealing his bedroom.

Shrugging to himself, Harry entered the room where he would be spending the greater part of a year sleeping.

On the far end of the room was more glass, again showing he was somewhere underneath the lake. The walls were made of stone but most of it was panneled in some dark type of wood, and there was a solitary four poster bed with green curtains leaning against the wall, flanked by a desk and a wardrobe.

At the foot of his bed lay his trunk. Harry wondered for a second how it had gotten there when he spotted a door adjacent to his bed.

Resting his palm against it like he had inadvertantly done before, the door slid open to reveal Draco's bedroom. Draco was busy rummaging through his trunk and looked up.

"Congratulations on making Slytherin! Did you notice we each get our own rooms? Father says none of the other houses get that luxury. They all sleep in one room." he said, wrinkling his nose.

"Thanks." Harry said. Draco seemed to have a bit of a superiority complex. Harry was slightly worried. If everyone in Slytherin was as dignified and somewhat snooty as Draco and Daphne, Harry was going to have a hard time fitting in. They all came from rich families, and Harry had never had any money in his life until his 11th Birthday.

He had never learned any of the customs of what _really _rich people thought were acceptable. While Uncle Vernon prided himself as being respectable, he repeatedly said himself that he was "middle class" The houses on Privet Drive were nice, but they weren't mansions by any stretch of the imagination.

Harry was brought back to the present when Draco spoke up again.

"Plus we get adjoining doors so we can go visit eachother." Draco said, nodding towards the door Harry had come through and one on the other side of the room, which Theodore Nott then came through.

"Hmm, our rooms seem to be the same size. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't being screwed over." Theodore said, returning to his own room and gently closing the door.

"That boy is a weird one." Draco said, going back to rummaging in his trunk. "Sorry about Daphne, she's a bit overenthsuasitc when it comes to socializing."

"I noticed." Harry said.

Although Daphne seemed friendly enough, she reminded him slightly of Aunt Petunia. He could picture Daphne gossiping about neighbours, and they both clearly cared a great deal about social gatherings and their own status in society.

"You should go off to bed, classes are awfully early and we don't want to be late for our first class. Father says that makes a bad first impression."

Harry nodded sleepily, and went back to his own bed and collapsed onto it, so tired he forgot to change his robes. Which, he now noticed, had aquired a green collar, and the tie was now stiped green and silver, and the Slytherin crest was now displayed on his chest.

As he dozed off, he had the odd feeling that he was really at home. For the first time he could remember, he felt he had a home. Not a house, but a home.

A/N

So, now that those two chapters are out of the way, things can start to get a bit more original, seeing as this is the first major divergence from canon, causing new situations to arise.


	3. Chapter 3: First Days

Acting upon the combined advice of several extremely talented authors for whom I hold a great deal of respect, and a realization of something I've said several times myself, most of Harry's first year will be mostly mentioned in passing, unless it was something significant. I've said several times I can't think of anything major changing in the first year, just slight differences, and the main interesting ideas I had for the story were year 2 onwards. It's probably impossible to have it take as long as the actual book, and if you've ever read the real books, a lot of them is dawdling once you know the main plot.

They arrive, they discover a mystery/a significant event happens, they spend the year figuring it out, and at the end of the year they reach their conclusion/Voldemort attacks and or both.

It's a lot of filler in between. And I can't think of too many people who would want to read (and one person who's not to keen to write) all the every day small talk and classes and day to day activities that took place in between, only slightly modified. I won't leave out the notable events of the first year as long (unless they're not necessary to the story) so it's either this, or some inane cliché like Sirius breaking out of Azkaban two years early because he heard Harry is in Slytherin, or Lucius placed the diary in some random schoolchild's books a year early, or anything like that.

Anyway, now that I've got past the basic establishing things of the sorting and the train ride, I can begin to (hopefully) differentiate myself from the other Harry in Slytherin fics. As somebody wise said, you have to have more to a story than Harry simply having green decals to his robes.

So anyway, great thanks to Kwan Li, timeloopedpowergamer and kmfrank for their generous advice.

**Harry Potter And The House Of The Serpent**

Chapter 3: First Days

Harry's first few days at Hogwarts were busy, to say the least. The first year Slytherin's very first class was Transfiguration with the Gryffindors, which went better then Harry expected for his first class.

Their task was to transfigure a match into a needle. Harry was relieved to see that very few members of the class succeeded by the end, and pleasantly surprised that he was among those who successfully transfigured their match.

At first he had only been able to turn his match silver, but it still had a wooden texture and weight to it. After Hermione, and then Theodore succeeded in full transfigurations, he redoubled his efforts, recalling each of the instructions from _Beginners Guide To Transfiguration_ and, by the end of the lesson he had succeeded, with him and Theodore each earning five points for Slytherin.

Herbology was okay, but so far (and for the foreseeable future) didn't involve any wands. It was a rather out-doorsy class, taking place in the greenhouses and being taught about plants and herbs by Professor Sprout, an ironic name indeed.

Charms was a lot of fun. Taught by little Professor Flitwick (who Harry's housemates claimed was part goblin, hence is small stature) who stood perched atop a stack of books.

On their first lesson they didn't learn any actual spells, but were taught basic wand movements and even allowed to discharge sparks from the ends of their wands in a mini firework show.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was somewhat of a disappointment. While everyone said it involved the most spellcasting out of any class, all Professor Quirrel did, was blubber on and on about various dark creatures from textbooks.

Normally, learning about vampires and hags would be exciting, but it was somewhat anti-climactic the way Quirrel would whimper whenever somebody asked him about his personal experience he claimed to have had with said creatures. Not to mention the whole class smelled strongly of garlic.

Astronomy was interesting, being taught by Professor Sinistra in the tallest tower at midnight, where they studied the names and orbits of the various planets and their moons. Harry had never really been allowed to stay up late, and it was amazing how many things you overlooked during the noise and busyness of the daylight hours.

Despite them being their first lessons, the various Professors didn't hesitate to give them sizable amounts of homework. While Slytherins claimed not to be over-studious like Ravenclaws, there was constant pressure to finish your homework before engaging in any leisurely activities, lest they cost Slytherin house points.

Which prompted Harry to visit the library a lot sooner and more frequently then he had planned on. While his housemates didn't exactly say go to the library, he couldn't just acquire a cheat-sheet or get some other student from another house to do his homework for him (a result of having no social connections, Daphne sniffed)

While he had rarely been to libraries before, this one was by far the dustiest and the most strict he had ever been in. The old librarian, Madam Pince, a vulture like woman, strode around the countless aisles, hissing at anybody who was doing anything even remotely resembling mishandling her precious books, or speaking any louder then a whisper.

The library wasn't all bad, though. It was basically the only place he could regularly see Hermione, seeing as they were in different houses. His early suspicions of her being an exceptional student were confirmed, as she was always earning the most points in her classes and every time he went to the library, she was there, studying.

While she didn't actually do his homework for him, as some of the older Slytherins had students from other houses doing, she did check over his homework and let him know if he made any mistakes.

Meanwhile all throughout the week, Harry became immersed in not only Wizard's culture, but Slytherin culture as well. Slytherins valued personal victory and getting what you want very highly.

If to get what you want required you to break rules, you were told not to be caught. If you were caught, try and convince the authorities of your innocence. If that failed, well, try and minimize the damage as much as possible, avoid losing points and don't drag any other Slytherins (if they were involved) down with you.

Before doing anything, consider if the reward outweighs the risk. If you're better at something then someone else is, they can depend on you. Never do a stranger a favour for free, as they'll think they can use you.

Always get as much as you can out of everything you do.

If you have any problems with other members of Slytherin, keep it to the common room and don't engage in bickering in front of the other houses, lest you damage Slytherin's reputation.

Keep your emotions in check. Treacherous things, emotions. Always making you do rash decisions before you think it through, getting you into trouble and embarrassing you. Which isn't to say become an emotionless robot, but present a cool, calm, collected and mature mask to those you don't trust.

Speaking of trust, regard everyone as untrustworthy until proven otherwise. Trusting somebody leaves you vulnerable. Trusting everyone automatically is for naïve Hufflepuffs.

If you make an enemy, be sure to get even with them with subtle methods. It wouldn't do to hex them in the halls and lose Slytherin points. Wait until they're alone and hex them, and besure not to be able to be identified.

Or spike their food or drinks with an embarrassing potion. Or enchant one of their belongings to harass them in some manner.

If they tell on you, deny it to the grave. Deny, deny, deny.

All in all, Harry wished he had some of these helpful tips years ago to aid him in dealing with the Dursleys.

In almost no time, Friday rolled around, bringing with it Harry's first potions class, and a trip to Hagrid's.

Potions took place early in the morning, and Draco warned him not to make a bad first impression on Professor Snape, as he tended to hold grudges and he could have a vicious temper.

Not usually against members of his own house, but, still. Draco's father had taught him good first impressions could help you get ahead later in life.

The class was all in all, somewhat uneventful. As soon as the class began, Snape rounded on Harry with a series of questions about various potions and potion ingredients, which he (more or less) answered correctly.

Snape spent the rest of the class ignoring Harry rather pointedly. He simply avoided looking in Harry's general direction for the entire class.

Harry paired up with Hermione, and together they successfully brewed the boil curing potion.

Near the end of the class, Professor Snape exhibited the temper Draco had warned about by berating poor Neville Longbottom, the boy who lost his toad, after he somehow managed to melt his cauldron.

Immediately after potions, Harry headed up to the library with Hermione, being followed by Blaise, where he killed time until his visit to Hagrid. When the time came, he offered for Hermione and Blaise to come.

Hermione turned the offer down, saying she needed to study. Blaise claimed he was getting a headache from studying too much and being cooped up indoors, and followed Harry.

Hagrid's hut was interesting. It lay on the edge of the forbidden forest and had all manners of strange things inside.

As soon as Harry and Blaise stepped in, Hagrid offered them "rock cakes" and tea.

"This place is very... rustic." Blaise commented, gazing around the hut.

To Harry's surprise, Hagrid snorted and let out a chuckle.

"I guess it's not much. I'm surprised yeh came down here at all. I knew yer mum, she was never the outdoorsy type, yeh could say. Always worryin' about getting dirt on her cloathes or chipping a nail."

"That does sound like her." Blaise admitted, with a slight smile.

Meanwhile, Harry, who was reading the newspaper, spoke up. "Hagrid? It says somebody tried to break into Gringotts on July 31st, my birthday. That's the day we were there."

"Oh? So it was, so it was." Hagrid said, looking suddenly nervous.

"So, how're your classes?" Hagrid asked, in a semi-transparent attempt to change the subject.

"Hang on, they tried to break into one of the high security vaults!" Blaise said, nodding at the moving picture on the newspaper. In it, goblins were bustling around the entrance way of an empty vault, but on the archway above, were the numbers 713.

"Lots of high security vaults for the old wizard families are in that general area. Who's vault was it?" Blaise asked.

"They didn't say." Hagrid said shortly.

"Hagrid, we went to this vault!" Harry said. "The day we were there, you got that package out of vault 713."

"And the article says the vault that had been broken into was emptied earlier that day." Blaise said with a grin. "So, what exciting secrets are you hiding?"

"This is school business, I can't let yeh know. You ought to drop it. It'll only lead to trouble." Harry and Blaise nodded reluctantly.

"So, you two excited fer yer flyin' lessons?" Fortunately for him, his next attempt to change the subject succeeded, and the three spent the rest of the visit talking about Quidditch, different brooms, and how much of Draco's stories were made up about his own experience with a broom. Afterwards, Harry told Hagrid all about his first week at school and his various lessons and teachers.

When it was time to go and just as they were leaving, Hagrid took Harry aside for a moment. "So, are they, uh... are they treatin yeh alright in Slytherin?" Hagrid asked, looking concerned.

"Of course! Why wouldn't they?" Harry said, confused.

"Well, I was kinda worried that I might have scared you talkin' about dark witches an' wizards all bein' from Slytherin. It's not strictly true that, it's just the most recent and famous ones came from that house. And Slytherins arne' exactly known fer being overly kind. So I just thought I'd ask." Hagrid said, looking like he wished to add something else.

"No, they're all really nice. Some of them are a little stuck up, but they're not mean or anything." Harry said with a grin.

"Alrigh', I'm just lookin' out fer yeh. Best be gettin' back ter the castle." Hagrid smiled, ruffling Harry's hair.

Harry spent the weekend (along with the other first years) completing all of their homework in one sitting, and spent the rest of the day outside on the grounds, near the lake.

Breakfast was always interesting. At the same time every day, hundreds of owls would swoop into the great hall, delivering letters and packages. Every other day, a large eagle owl would deliver sweets from Draco's mother, which he shared with all the other Slytherin first years.

Harry's second week went on just as uneventfully as the first one, so far. Which wasn't a complaint by any stretch. It was a nice change from the constant conflict and turmoil at the Dursleys. It all passed in a pleasant haze of classes and games and homework in the common room and study sessions with Hermione in the library.

During one of the numerous library visits, Hermione mentioned in passing that she had been ridiculed by some of the other Gryffindor first years for hanging out with "a slimy Slytherin", and how (to Harry's amusement) she apparently responded with a lecture about buying into stereotypes, narrow-mindedness, judging books by their covers and inter-house relations and not to participate silly rivalries.

Which resulted in him not being that surprised when, one night he returned to the common room, a few Slytherin first years gathered to question him.

"So, Zabini here says you've been hanging out with Granger a lot in the library." Draco said slowly.

"Oh, Harry." Pansy said, shaking her head exasperatedly.

"What did I do?" Harry said uncertainly, although he was pretty sure he knew what this was about.

"It's not really your fault, you see. It's just another by product of being raised by savage muggles, Harry, so you just don't understand." Draco said solemnly.

"What's a by product? What don't I understand?" Harry said, starting to get confused as to what this was about. Slytherins and Gryffindors usually had a rivalry for as long as anyone could remember, so he imagined that this would be about Hermione being in Gryffindor.

"Well, first of all she's a Gryffindor." Pansy said, confirming Harry's suspicion "And..." she trailed off, looking uncertain.

"She's just not one of our kind. Her kind is trouble." Draco said bluntly.

"What do you mean, our kind? She's a witch, we've all seen her do magic." Harry said, bewildered.

The other first years shared a glance with eachother.

"I'm not getting involved in this." Theo said, holding up his hands and retreating back into his shadowy corner where he spent most of his time reading.

"It's just that she's a mu- ggleborn. She didn't grow up with our culture, our way of life. Her kind just never understands things the way we do, always getting bizzare thoughts and forming outlandish opinions about things they'll simply never understand. They get dangerous ideas." Draco said.

This was all rather unexpected for Harry. They were talking about Hermione, and other muggleborns, like they were entirely separate creatures from humans. Or they weren't magical at all, like a muggle.

He could understand how it could be "dangerous" to let a muggle into Hogwarts. He shuddered to imagine Uncle Vernon's reaction if he ever stepped foot inside the castle, but this was all rather unprecedented.

"But I grew up with muggles too. In case you don't remember, I know just as little about wizard culture as Hermione does. I'm not going to get any dangerous ideas, am I?" Harry asked with a frown. He was starting to get annoyed.

Draco looked shock and quickly started to backpedal. "No, not really. It's just not the same. You, you're from an old wizarding family. It's not your fault you were raised by muggles."

"It's not Hermione's fault she wasn't born into a wizard family either." Harry shot back.

"Unless there's something else you wish to tell him, Draco? another reason, perhaps, as to why you don't like muggleborns?" Tracey Davis asked, with a smirk.

"Fine." Draco huffed. "They're just not as... respectable as us." he proclaimed.

"What, do you mean money or something? they're eleven, they haven't been given time to earn a living in the wizard world." Harry said crossly.

"No, not like that. Okay, it's like this. The more magical blood you have in your veins, the better the wizard you are. The oldest families have all kept pure for generations. Always marrying other witches or wizards, and never a muggle or even a muggleborn. It taints the bloodline, you see, with the unclean mud-gle blood. Diminishes power." Draco finished with a pompous nod.

Pansy grimaced and shook her head while Daphne buried her head in her hands. "How could you be so crass, Draco?" she asked.

"Funny, seeing as my dad was a muggle, that I do better in class then you, Draco." Tracey said with a scowl.

"Hey, that's different! You said your father acknowledges he's inferior to your mother!" Draco exclaimed.

"I never said inferior, I just said he really has learned to depend on her and he respects my mother and her magic!" Tracey snapped back.

This recent development had Harry uneasy. The way they were talking about muggles reminded Harry faintly of how the Dursleys regarded wizards.

"Ignore them." Daphne said with a sigh. "Me and Daphne will explain it to you Harry." Pansy said.

"How do I put this delicately..." Daphne began. "Well, I may as well just start with the blood types. Wizards have a certain blood purity system. Someone with four magical grandparents, that is, on both sides of the family, is a pureblood. Anybody with anything less then that is a half blood. Somebody with completely non magic, muggle parents and grandparents is known as a muggleborn."

"Most wizards in society strive to be purebloods, and keep that up for as long as possible." Pansy added. "Because, purebloods usually hold all the high positions and are well respected, and are basically born with huge social status and a giant inheritance. There hasn't been a single non-pureblood minister for magic, for example." Pansy explained.

"It's for a lot of reasons. Simply being such an old family means you have generations worth of wealth and social standing built up, and you're generally allowed into any circle of society you desire. For example, although nobody will admit this, most of the high ranking ministry jobs are simply not attainable for muggleborns. They'll always find an excuse to fill it with somebody from an old pureblood family, or even a half-blood if need be." Daphne said.

Pansy nodded in agreement.

"Now, with that sort of treatment stretching back as far as anyone remembers, the old pureblood families have come to regard themselves as the elite. Borderline royalty." Daphne continued.

"Originally it was just all social benefits, but that idea has somehow evolved over time into believing keeping your blood pure means increased magical talent as well. Well nobody can prove that, the results have been varied. Anyway, that line of thinking has lead to some people -" Daphne said, rolling her eyes in Draco's direction "- thinking that everyone should bow down to them for simply existing. I admit purebloods deserve respect for their rich ancestry, you shouldn't be so insensitive about it. Draco is just so direct and blunt about it. Subtlety and modesty were clearly not taught to that boy by his parents." Daphne sniffed

"Even if you think you're fundamentally better than non-purebloods, father says to keep it to yourself so you don't step on anyone's toes." Pansy said.

"But do you guys? Think you're fundamentally better then non-purebloods?" Harry asked.

Everyone present looked uncomfortable. Draco and Tracey stopped arguing, and Theo looked up from his book.

"Yes, in a way. I won't go out of my way to insult them." Pansy said, looking wary. "But if they dare to disrespect me!" she threatened, a scowl taking over her face.

"Of course! Somebody's got to teach them their place!" Draco exclaimed.

"I believe..." Daphne began slowly "that purebloods are better in tune with the culture of the wizarding world, and brought up with better manners and views of the world - at least most of them -" she said, shooting Draco a nasty look "- then those raised by muggles are."

"I think having such a old and noble ancestry should be a matter of great pride, but belittling muggleborns when they'll be the future's purebloods is beneath me." Blaise said stiffly.

Harry was reasonably satisfied with everyone's answer, with the possible exception of Pansy's, and definitely Draco's. As for the rest of the group, he realized it was a touchy subject, and it'd be for the best to simply avoid it in the future.

"Somebody has to teach them their place!" Draco said. "Until they adapt!" he added quickly, when everyone present scowled.

"I trust you remember that my mother was a muggleborn, Draco?" Harry said cooly.

"Of course!" Draco said, with an expression on his face making it apparent to everyone that he _had_ forgot. "That's different though!"

"How?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.

"It... it just is."

"Right." Harry said. "So, is anyone else going to have a problem with me studying in the library with Hermione? You know she's been reading as much as she can, with the purpose of - she explicitly said, understanding wizard culture more. - So she's at least making an effort."

"Your affairs are none of my business." Theo said smoothly.

"I couldn't care less." Blaise said.

Daphne shook her head, as did Pansy, although she did so somewhat grudgingly.

"Right then. I'm off to bed, if that's alright with everyone."

As he left, he heard them all whispering furiously behind him. He ignored them. He had a lot to think about tonight as it is.

Several days went by without the "blood purity" subject even being mentioned. It wasn't until the day of the Slytherin first years first flying lesson that it was brought up again.

"What were _you_ of all people doing over _there_?" Pansy demanded after Draco returned from the Gryffindor table.

"Talking to Longbottom." he said shortly.

"What for?"

"His grandmother sent him a remembrall." Draco replied darkly.

"What does Longbottom need with one of those gimmicks?" Pansy asked with disgust.

"What's a remembrall?" Harry whispered to Daphne.

"It's a glass ball filled with smoke. When the smoke turns red, it means you've forgotten something. It's not of much use, seeing as it doesn't tell you what you've forgotten. They're popular for gifting to muggle relatives as they don't break the statue of secrecy. Muggles supposedly have similar items." she answered, the last part causing Harry to think of mood rings.

"So unbecoming of someone of his status. Honestly, you'd never believe he was a pureblood unless you knew better." Draco scoffed.

"Draco, what did we say about mentioning this subject?" Millicent said threateningly.

"Oh, uh, right." Draco said, avoiding her gaze hastily.

"So, flying lessons are today." Blaise said, smoothly changing the subject.

"Yea, what about them?" Harry asked gloomily. He had been on edge recently. Everyone in the whole school (or at least his year) had been on non-stop about Quidditch and the various childhood adventures they'd had on brooms.

Draco had supposedly been chased by a muggle helicopter one day, while Ronald Weasley had hit a hangglider. Theo claimed to have flown to Calais from Dover and back. Everyone constantly went on about Quidditch. Well, almost everyone.

"So, are you scared Daphne?" Theo asked, grinning.

"I told you, flying does NOT scare me! It is beneath my notice!" Daphne said hotly. Theo had recently entertained a theory about Daphne being afraid of heights and that was why she didn't like Quidditch.

"Whatever you say, Daphne." Theo replied with a smirk.

As the two commenced bickering, everyone absent-mindedly consumed their breakfast, their thoughts leading outside to the pending flying lessons in store for them. To be honest, Harry was exceedingly worried. Not that he was afraid of heights, but he actually faced a real chance of being left in the dust, figuratively and literally.

All of his wizard raised classmates had years of Quidditch experience behind them. Apparently brooms, unlike wands, were not prohibited to younger children. There were so many possibilities for something to go wrong. Like he'd make a fool of himself. Or hurt himself. Or both. When he expressed these concerns to his friends, they all had varied reactions.

Hermione agreed with him and went back to franticially reading _Quidditch Through The Ages _for any possible last minute tips. Draco scoffed and said he'd do fine, why wouldn't he? Don't be absurd.

Daphne told him not to worry about it as Quidditch was foolish anyway.

Blaise and Theo reminded him of one of the mottos of Slytherin: Even if you don't know what you're doing, at least look like you do. Which wasn't much help in this situation.

All Tracey said was to just follow the flight instructor's tips and he'd be fine.

All too soon, they headed outside and down the sloping lawns towards a smooth, flat area that had countless broomsticks already awaiting them.

Shortly after they arrived, Madam Hooch, the flight instructor arrived.

Somewhat resembling a hawk, she told them first how to pick up your broom by simply holding your hand above it and saying "up". Harry's broom jumped immediatley into his hand, but his was one of the few that did.

Then Madam Hooch went around telling them all how to grip their brooms properly. Draco was fuming when Madam Hooch told him he'd been gripping his broom the wrong way for years. Some of the Gryffindors snickered at that.

Once they had begun to grip their brooms to her satisfaction, she informed them they'd all be kicking off, and hovering a few feet from the ground. Poor Neville Longbottom, looking even more frightened than Daphne, kicked off prematurely and rocketed into the air, and then promptly fell off, falling in a heap on the ground with a nasty crack.

After Madam Hooch departed, taking Longbottom with her, Draco quickly snatched something from the ground.

"Hey look, it's that stupid ball Longbottom's gran gave to him." he said, smirking.

"Give that back right now Malfoy!" Ronald Weasley shouted at him.

"I don't think I appreciate your tone, Weasley. You should learn to show more respect to your betters." he sniffed.

"You're not my better Malfoy! Now give it back!" Weasley growled.

While Harry was busy thinking about a number of superior retorts, Draco took off into the sky, followed shortly by Weasley.

Weasley lunged his broom at Draco, who swiftly dodged.

"Now, Weasley, you'll have to do better then that if you want the nice shiny ball." Draco tutted. Weasley looked even angrier, if possible, and made another unsucesful pass at Draco, while numerous people on the ground laughed and cheered them on.

Sighing, Hermione walked up to stand beside Harry. "Can't you persuade him to give it back? He is your friend after all, and he's being very bratty." she huffed.

"I have an idea." Harry said. He had to admit, Draco was being rather cruel. He now sort of understood how he at first compared him to Dudley. Draco wasn't offensivley unintellegent, nor was he rude (most of the time at least) or a full time bully like Dudley, but he did have a mean streak in him, and Harry got the impression that he was pampered like Dudley.

Not to the degree where he'd throw tantrums about not getting sufficient ammounts of presents, but still spoiled nonetheless.

Harry kicked off on his broom while Hermione called out behind him "I didn't mean to go up there with them!" she exclaimed, exasperated.

"Hey Draco, want to play catch?" Harry called, just as Draco dodged Weasley again.

With a grin, he threw Harry the Remembrall. His aim was slightly off, so Harry had to roll his broom to catch it. Weasley rushed towards him, and Harry swiftly pulled out of the way, and threw the Remembrall back to Draco, who barely caught it. He'd have to end this soon, and tactfully. Both the catches had been near misses, and he was trying to save Longbottom's Remembrall, not destroy it.

As Weasley rushed Draco again, he threw it back to Harry. "Keepaway!" he shouted, laughing. But Weasley, directly in between them, reached up for the remembrall, but fumbled it, and batted it towards the ground.

"NO!" Reacting instinctively, Harry went into a sharp dive, pulling up just above the grass with the Remembrall firmly in his hand. He was just demounting his broom when he was startled by a shout.

"POTTER! WEASLEY! MALFOY!"

Professor McGonagall was striding down the lawn towards them, looking furious.

An hour later, Harry found himself in Professor Snape's office, with Snape himself, and for some odd reason, Marcus Flint. Currently they were just finishing up after huddling in a corner over some glowing basin that Professor Snape had extracted after having a discreet conversation with Professor McGonagall in the corner.

She had taken Harry and Draco to see him, saying their punishment was out of her jurisdiction, seeing as she wasn't their head of house. Draco was given a single night's detention and was told to leave shortly after arriving, but Harry had been held back. He miserably considered the thought that they were going to expel him. Hadn't Madam Hooch threatened them with that if they took off on their brooms? Harry wished he had been paying more attention.

"So." Professor Snape said, folding his hands and eyeing Harry with an inscrutable expression on his face.

"I'm sorry sir! I just thought I'd try and get Draco to give Longbottom's Remembrall back." Harry said, the words tumbling out of his mouth all at once.

"Silence." Snape said sternly. "I do not wish to hear your excuses. Your behavior was unprecedented, no matter the circumstances. You will be given a night's detention."

"Yes sir." Harry said, nodding respectfully.

"However..." Snape began, looking as though he was having a massive internal battle.

"Judging by Professor McGonagall's testimony, you are reportedly a natrual on a broomstick. I will be recomending you to the Slytherin Quidditch team. You will practice with Mr. Flint tommorow night. If you are sufficiently talented, you may even end up on the team. However, I will go no farther then putting in a good word for you. If I hear you haven't been taking your practice seriously, I will change my mind on the severity of your punishment." Snape said silkily.

"Wait outside my office for a moment, Mr. Flint. I wish to have a word with Mr. Potter in private." he requested.

Nodding his affirmative, Marcus left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Do not think that fame puts you above the rules, Mr. Potter. Do not let simple talent on a broomstick go to your head. If I hear that you've flaunted the rules so brazenly in the future, you may very well be expelled. Do you understand me?" he said coldly.

"Of course sir." Harry replied. "I don't think I'm above the rules."

Snape considered him over his hands for a moment. "Good. See to it that you retain that mindset. You might not have been told very much about your parents, but your father had a way with a broomstick. Suddenly, a little talent on the Qudditch pitch and he became insufferably arrogant." Snape said, glowering.

The fact that it was a negative opinion of his father made Harry more curious. The little he had heard about his parents was endless praise. But here was Professor Snape, making him sound a bit like Draco Malfoy. It made his parents seem alot more real, Harry felt. Like real people with flaws, instead of distant, perfect memories.

"My dad played Quidditch? He was talented?" Harry asked, curiously.

"Yes..." Snape began slowly, a vein throbbing in his jaw. "He was talented, to a degree." he said grudginly. "Now please vacate my office. You are excused."

After a quick talk with Marcus Flint about when his Quidditch practice was scheduled the next day, they headed back to the common room.

Back in the common room, suffice to say all of his friends were (mostly) too shocked to speak by the good news. He spent the rest of the night getting envious glances from his fellow first years and hearing yet another discussion on Quidditch.

The next morning, Draco brought Harry to the Gryffindor table to gloat. Ron Weasley was in a bad mood that they'd both gotten off with a single night's detention each, while he'd had 20 points taken from Gryffindor and a week's worth of detention.

Hoping for perceived retribution, he challnged Draco and Harry to a wizard's duel with him and Seamus Finnigan. Draco agreed, and set the time for midnight of that very night, in the trophy room.

Sometime later, after Draco explained to Harry that they simply werne't going to show up, Draco and Harry tipped Argus Filch, the caretaker, off about overhearing some Gryffindors plotting to sneak into the trophy room and vandalize things.

The next morning had them learn that Ron and Seamus had been caught by Mr. Filch and given a week's dentention each.

While Harry didn't get to take part in a wizard's duel, he did learn several customs and rules about it. All in all, this week was far more eventful than the last.

A/N I'm planning on fewer, longer chapters to finish this story off. As opposed to a handful of shorter ones every other day or so, I'm planning on one or maybe two more big chapters to finish this story off. As always, please review.


	4. Chapter 4: Days Go By

I don't really have much to say, other than to check out the works of Kwan Li, Timeloopedpowergamer and kmfrank.

They're all fantastic writers and generous people.

**Harry Potter and The House Of The Serpent**

Chapter 4: Days Go By

After Harry's second week, the time seemed to fly by. Harry's practice with Marcus Flint went well. Flint said he was a complete natural, and had him practice with the various balls, including the infamous golden snitch, despite it already being dark out.

His reply when Harry expressed his concern that the snitch might fly away and it would be too dark to find again was: "Well, use that as motivation then. Any snitches that get lost, you're paying for 'em."

Harry practiced with each of the balls. He was good with handling and catching the Quaffle, but not so much throwing it through the hoops. He frequently got the trajectory wrong, although he was sure if he was given time he would improve. Harry's aim only got worse once the Bludgers went into play.

Flint said not to worry, as he had the build and reflexes of a Seeker, and that they didn't need any new Chasers anyway.

Practicing as a Beater made Harry's arms sore. He always managed to bat away the Bludger, and he certainly was quick enough for it, but it required a lot of force behind the swing to deflect it, let alone knock it in a direction he desired, while Flint assured him he'd never be a Beater anyway, as they were always older, stouter students.

Finally Seeker practice started, and Flint was delighted. Harry caught every single snitch within five minutes. Even when he let the Bludgers loose on him, Harry still managed to catch the snitch with relative ease and never once exceeding twenty minutes. Although Flint said it would be significantly more difficult with fourteen players on the pitch.

After practice concluded, Flint informed him that his performance exceeded any expectations they had for their Seeker, and that he was almost assured to be on the team.

"Our Seeker graduated last year. If we didn't get anybody for the position this year, we'd be using Terrance Higgs, a reserve chaser from last season. He isn't that good, but he's better then anyone else on the team, but you're worlds better then him. We still have to wait for him to try out, and unless he became a prodigy over the summer, you're a shoe in, Potter."

Sure enough, when Quidditch tryouts took place, and Harry practiced once more, this time in competition against Terrance Higgs. He easily outperformed the older boy. Flint said not only did he have natural reflexes, his smaller and lighter frame allowed him to go faster due to less wind resistance. Or something like that.

He wasn't paying too much attention, he was busy being overjoyed at winning a spot on the Quidditch team.

The rest of Slytherin house congratulated him, saying he was the youngest Quidditch player in nearly a century and a bunch of other praise Harry didn't really pay attention to. He had been warned that whenever you accomplished a great task in Slytherin (and the "real world") that you'd get lots of people coming up to you and acting all chummy, something they wouldn't have done a few days ago back when he was just another student, and that, given time, it would wear off.

A couple days after making the team, a Nimbus 2000 was delivered to Harry at breakfast. Professor Snape had said he'd be bending the rules enough, allowing a first year their own broom, and that buying one for him would be absurd.

So, the Slytherin Quidditch team started a collecting pool to gather funds from everyone in the house to buy Harry's broom.

When it arrived, Harry thanked everyone who donated. They brushed it off, saying that he didn't owe them as it wasn't really that much money and that they were benefiting Slytherin as much as they were him.

The first years began to learn more and more complex spells in their classes. Charms class was Harry's favourite, especially after they were taught the Levitating Charm on Hallowe'en.

Which wasn't the only notable event on Hallowe'en.

Hermione was attacked by a troll in the bathroom where she had gone to cry after being insulted by Ron Weasley, who was likely still in a foul mood after Draco and Harry's Trophy Room prank. Harry only heard just in time that she was in the bathroom from Longbottom.

After Quirrel ran into the hall shrieking about a troll in the dungeons and the students were ordered back to their common rooms, Harry pulled Longbottom aside and asked where Hermione was as he hadn't seen her at the feast.

When he told him where she was and why she was there, Harry tried to tell Percy Weasley, the Gryffindor Prefect about her being in the bathroom and therefore not aware of the troll, to which he replied with: "So? The troll is in the dungeons, nowhere near any bathrooms. Now stop wasting time and head to your common room."

An order Harry immediately disobeyed. After waiting for Percy to leave, he began to sneak off in the direction of the girl's bathroom in question when Blaise and Theo began following him.

"You've already decided to do something stupid, and we probably can't persuade you otherwise. We may as well follow you to make sure you don't do something else stupid on the way. Plus there's a troll around, and we're safer in numbers."

They arrived at the bathroom to find the troll actually inside for some reason, about to crush Hermione. A yell and a levitating charm which dropped a shattered sink on it's head, and the troll's attention was on the three boys, to Theo and Blaise's annoyance.

A shouted Diffindo sent a well aimed cutting curse Harry had learned from Theo, into one of the troll's eyes, causing it to stumble and howl in pain, while Blaise and Theo hit it with levitated sinks and toilets. Harry quickly dashed inside the bathroom while it was distracted and clutching it's face, grabbed Hermione by the arm and ran, locking the troll in.

Immediately afterwards, Professors Snape, McGonagall and Quirrel showed up just as the troll broke down the door. Snape flicked his wand and the troll's club went flying from it's hand, McGonagall shot a silver flash of light at the troll, knocking it unconscious while Quirrel whimpered in a corner.

All four students were questioned, and after things were sorted out, McGonagall took five points from Slytherin for doing something "so reckless", then turned heel and awarded Slytherin ten points, stating "Not too many First Years can distract and contain a fully grown mountain troll."

Which made absolutely no sense. Why take five points away and then award ten? Harry began to wonder just how old Professor McGonagall was.

After that event, Hermione began to spend more of her free time with Harry, and by extension, some of his Slytherin friends. Apparently she didn't have too many people she talked to in Gryffindor, other than Neville Longbottom who was shy and nice, and Dean Thomas who was also a Muggleborn like her, and had something in common.

As for all the girls in her year, they were far too chatty and empty headed to have a meaningful conversation with, Hermione had said.

Most of Harry's Slytherin friends reluctantly respected Hermione's talent and intellect, and didn't mind her tagging along with them. Harry had gotten them to respect and accept Hagrid, after all. Eventually, they unanimously stated that the man, lowly gamekeeper or not, who rescued The Boy-Who-Lived from "Savage Muggles" deserved eternal respect.

Very soon Harry's first Quidditch match came and went, with one bizarre event.

It was a fairly close match. Gryffindor's Beaters, in the form of Fred and George Weasley (seriously, how many Weasleys were in this school?) were superior to Slytherin's own, Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole.

The chasers were about equal. Graham Montague, Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey had better aim than their Gryffindor rivals, but Gryffindor Chasers Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet were faster and had better co-ordination with eachother and the Gryffindor Beaters.

With the Keepers, it didn't really matter. Flint said that if the Keeper came into play, you were doing it wrong.

As for the Seekers, it was painfully obvious that the Gryffindor Seeker, a second year named Cormac McLaggen was hopelessly outclassed by Harry. As the match went on with the scores about equal, Harry spotted the Snitch, dove on it and nearly caught it, all without McLaggen even noticing. He would have ended the match right there, too, if his broom hadn't tried to buck him off.

He struggled to hold on for nearly a minute, and was about to fall off when suddenly he was able to control it again. Not long after, he saw the Snitch again, without McLaggen notcing untill it was too late. Harry smoothly caught it in his outstretched hand, ending the match 50-230 in Slytherin's favour.

The reason for his broom acting up was debated among Harry's friends. Hermione claimed she saw Professor Snape muttering something and staring unblinkingly at Harry's broom, stating that eye contact was required for jinxing an object, the object in question (With the way Harry's broom had reacted) being the Nimbus 2000. She backed this up by saying after she snuck around the stands and lit the hem of Snape's robes on fire, Harry's broom stopped acting up.

While Harry's Slytherin friends reportedly saw Quirrel muttering and staring at Harry's broom as well, and believed he was the culprit. Citing that Snape was in Slytherin and even if he wanted to kill Harry for some unknown reason, he'd wait until he was alone and not winning a Quidditch match for Slytherin. They also mentioned that the panic caused by the sudden outbreak of flames had Quirrel knocked on his back by somebody in the stands.

Hagrid said that it was all rubbish, and that no Professor at Hogwarts would attack a student.

As for Harry, he certainly didn't know who to believe. They both had convincing evidence, but he was inclined to believe Quirrel was the guilty one after a suspicious episode in the corridors. After one Defense Against The Dark Arts class, a student bumped into Quirrel, causing him to spill his books all over the floor.

Harry helped him pick them up, and when their hands briefly made contact, Quirrel leapt up and yelped like he'd been burnt, and had been acting even more suspicious ever since.

Sooner than Harry thought possible, winter began to approach. The wind grew colder and every night remnants of snowflakes would begin to fall, melting on contact with the ground.

As the weeks passed the snow began to stay and pile up, and the castle grew chilly, at least in the unheated corridors. Professor Snape's Potions Classroom in the dungeons was the worst.

All the students huddled to their cauldrons to keep warm, and everyone wondered why it was so much colder than the rest of the classrooms. Was it because it was underground? Was it because the large fireplace in one end of the room was almost never lit? Was it because Snape liked the cold?

Most of the students were headed home for the Christmas Holidays. Harry wouldn't dream of it. Hogwarts and the Slytherin Common room were more of a home than Private Drive had ever been or ever would be. He had mixed feelings about how many people were headed home, although. He was slightly envious of them having an actual family that wanted him home, but he was also excited as he'd have all of Slytherin house and almost the entire castle to himself.

Hermione was leaving, as were most of the Gryffindors, with the exception of the Weasley family. Ronald, Fred, George and Percy were all staying behind. Harry decided he'd take the opportunity to make their acquaintance.

While his brief encounter with Percy gave him the impression that the fifth year was a bit of a prat, he found Fred and George's antics amusing, and he should really patch things up with Ronald.

Although he did have a bit of a temper, Harry hardly even knew him, and he should give him a chance. Most of his offenses were usually him being provoked, with the exception of insulting Hermione, but Harry had gotten even for her by hitting the youngest Weasley with a tongue tying curse when they passed in the halls, headed to different classes, so it was alright.

When Christmas Morning came, Harry found, to his surprise and delight, actual presents at the bottom of his bed. The only gifts he had ever gotten for Christmas were old, worn out pairs of socks from the Dursleys. While he did have a present from the Dursleys, it wasn't socks.

It was a note with fifty pence taped to it.

The note read: We received your message and enclosed your Christmas Present. Use this to stay in that freaky school of yours. -Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia

Harry took this as evidence that they thankfully hadn't discovered his Gringotts vault filled with piles of gold, silver and bronze.

Underneath the note was a box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.

From Theo, Harry received a Hippogriff Quill.

From Daphne was a book on Wizard Genealogy.

"So you can learn more about your family history and the other old wizard families. You really do need to become more acclimatized, Harry." her note read.

From Blaise was a jar of invisible ink and a special eraser that supposedly revealed messages in invisible ink. Blaise had included a supposedly blank note, so Harry used said eraser on it.

The note read "I couldn't really think of anything humorous to get you (I got Draco a remembrall as he seemed to keen on acquiring one) so I hope you settle for this instead. Enjoy"

Harry could almost read the smirk coming off of the passage about the gift to Draco, but that caused him to realize he hadn't gotten anyone else any presents.

He hadn't really expected any himself, he had almost completely forgotten the whole gift giving practice associated with Christmastime. He'd have to use an Owl Order Catalogue and get them some presents for when they came back from the holidays.

He could almost hear Daphne saying how ill-mannered and socially uncouth it was to not get anybody presents in return.

Harry returned to unwrapping his presents.

From Draco was a broom care kit, the note telling him to keep his broom in good condition so that they may win the Quidditch Cup this year, continuing a streak of who knew how many years.

From Tracey were several moving photos of his first Quidditch match, including one of him looking ridiculous while trying to hang onto his Nimbus.

From Hagrid was a beautiful flute that sounded like an owl when he blew it.

Only one package was left to open.

Inside was a note laying atop a neatly folded pile of cloth.

Harry pulled the cloth out of the package and examined it. It looked somewhat like a blanket, and it was silvery and slippery. As he put his hand underneath the material, his hand disappeared up to his wrist, as did the entire bundle of cloth. Wrenching it out from underneath it, it reappeared again.

Remembering a certain item Theodore had mentioned in passing once, Harry wrapped what he suspected was a very special cloak around his body and looked in his mirror at the other end of the room.

Sure enough, his entire body, save his head, had disappeared. Harry had received an invisibility cloak. He returned to the note that the cloak came with.

The note read, in narrow, loopy handwriting: _Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well._ Whoever sent it left no signature, leaving Harry slightly suspicious, before he realized that whoever sent it didn't mean him harm. He had tried on the cloak, and it hadn't hurt him, and it worked perfectly.

Still, Harry had to wonder who sent it. Being in Slytherin had taught him that if something was too good to be true, then it probably was.

It was his father's. "Use it well." The note had said. Harry intended to do just that. He had all of Slytherin common room to himself. Nobody could stop him sneaking out late. Tonight would be devoted to using his father's cloak well by exploring the castle.

Harry bounded into the completely empty common room and shouted "Good morning!" to nobody in particular.

"What's so freaking good about it?" hissed a portrait of a snake in a top hat.

"It's Christmas morning and I got presents!" Harry replied.

"Okay, sorry I asked. Don't speak so loud. Ugh, one was not meant to be awake this early. Thanks for waking me, brat."

"Er, sorry? I'm off to breakfast." Harry said uncertainly. He heard the portraits speak, but not usually to him and only him.

"Whatever. Just get out of here."

Harry went up to breakfast and had a nice rice pudding for breakfast and went off to the Quidditch pitch to fly around on his Nimbus 2000.

As he returned to the castle, he spotted the Weasley family engaged in a furious snowball fight, and asked to join in. Ronald grumbled something but Fred and George acquiesced. After a furious fight, they all stumbled, cold and sopping back into the castle. Trying to be friendly, Harry got an idea and turned to face the Weasleys.

"Nobody in Slytherin stayed behind for Christmas, want to come and see the common room?"

Fred and George grinned and agreed immediately. Percy said he was sure it was against the rules, and Ronald grumbled something, not meeting his gaze.

Fred and George insisted they went. "How many opportunities are we going to have to get to see the snake pit?" they had said, oddly, in perfect unison.

After warming off by the fire in the Slytherin common room, Harry made it clear that nobody can know he let any "outsiders" inside the common room, to which they all agreed, on the condition that he didn't tell anybody from Gryffindor that they had been inside the Slytherin common room.

Harry had the best Christmas dinner of his life that day. Eating a delicious turkey dinner and opening Wizard's crackers with the Weasleys. They were different from the boring muggle crackers Uncle Vernon bought. These crackers exploded violently and left gifts behind.

After Christmas dinner was finished, Harry and the Weasleys parted ways at the staircases in the entrance hall, one staircase headed downwards and the other headed upwards. Just as they were leaving, Harry offered them a ride on his Nimbus 2000 the next day, and the reaction was instant.

Percy sniffed and said he had better things to do other than "fool around" on a broomstick. Fred and George looked like Christmas came 364 days early, and Ron's face lit up.

"You mean it? Fly... on a real Nimbus? The most I've ever flown at home was an old Cleansweep!"

"Sure, why wouldn't I mean it?" Harry asked, confused.

"Because tricking me and getting my hopes up would be the sort of thing a Slytherin would do!" Ron said accusingly.

"Sorry about our dear brother." Fred, or George (Harry couldn't tell them apart) cut in. "He never did have any manners. We accept your generous offer, O Great Harry Potter!" they said, again in unison, giving him ridiculous bows and curtsies. It was a rather good imitation of those countless people in The Leaky Cauldron back in July.

"Sorry." Mumbled Ron.

"It's alright, I wouldn't be a proper Slytherin if you weren't suspicious of me." Harry said, with a grin.

And with that, the Weasleys went up the stairs and Harry hurried off to the Slytherin common room.

After a couple hours passed, Harry decided to waste no more time and got his Invisibility Cloak out of his trunk.

Harry ran as fast as he could while wearing the cloak. He had already made enough noise as it was. He ripped through a tapestry and sprinted down a corridor, when he came to a door.

He tried to open it frantically but found it was locked. He heard Filch approaching. The Slytherin house rule "_If you're going to break the rules, don't get caught._" rang through his head.

Recalling the Unlocking Charm Hermione taught him, he pointed his wand at the lock and incanted _Alohomora_ in a whisper. The door unlocked and swung open. Harry hurried in and closed it quietly behind him. Leaning his forehead against the door, Harry closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, his heart pounding. That had been too close.

There he had been, wandering the castle and exploring, when he came upon an unused classroom with the door slightly ajar. Peering in, he saw countless pieces of furniture pushed against the walls, and in the middle of the room, an ornate mirror.

It had funny markings and gibberish text all over the frame, but what was most interesting was what he saw in it. When he looked into the mirror, not only did he see his reflection as he expected (or maybe didn't expect, seeing as he was still wearing the cloak) but countless people surrounding him. Harry's family. He saw his mum, with his eyes, and his dad, with his hair, and he sat there, gazing at them for what could have been hours.

As he left, he tripped and fell into a suit of armor, and Mr. Filch had come running, so Harry took off.

As he heard Filch leave outside the door, his hear rate returned to normal and he resumed breathing normally. Only problem was, he could still hear heavy breathing.

Opening his eyes and spinning around, he couldn't believe what he saw. Laying in front of him was a monstrous, three headed dog. It was asleep, but he could tell from the way it's noses and ears were twitching and it's tail was spasming that it was roused, slightly, by his sudden entrance.

Deciding that Filch had probably left by now and not really caring, Harry opened the door and slipped out, running back to the common room as fast as he could without making more noise then necessary.

The next day, after all the Weasleys (including Percy, no matter how much he protested to Harry's insistence that he give the broom a fly) finished flying Harry's Nimbus, Harry headed straight to the library and looked in the beasts section, trying to find out more about the giant three headed dog he had seen at Christmas.

Nothing even resembling the dog was to be found in his copy of _Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them_, so he had to go search the library for any information. Pulling down several different old, thick tomes on magical creatures, Harry began work on what would probably be several long hours of reading.

Getting an idea a few minutes into his reading, Harry put all the books back and decided to go for a visit to Hagrid.

After offering Harry tea, Hagrid asked him how he enjoyed Christmas.

"It was great. There aren't many people in the castle, and none in Slytherin, so i got the whole common room to myself. I had dinner with the Weasleys and earlier today I gave them a go on my Nimbus."

"That was nice of you. A good family the Weasleys. A good family. I'm always stoppin' those twin sons of theirs from sneaking off into the forest, although. Biggest pair of pranksters since yer dad and his friends were at Hogwarts."

Distracted momentarily from the mission he had initially come here for, Harry's curiosity peaked.

"My dad was a prankster? Like Fred and George?"

"Oh, they were even better than Fred and George Weasley. Yer dad and his friends were the biggest group of troublemakers Hogwarts has ever seen. Other than Peeves, though, but he doesn' really count."

Harry was fascinated. It was nice, learning something new about your parents. People weren't just a blanket statement like "They were the nicest people you could ask for." or "They were some of the most talented students I've ever taught." or something along those lines. People were made up of hundreds, if not thousands of tiny little characteristics.

Harry felt like he actually knew them a bit better whenever one of these pieces of information was presented to him.

Remembering why he was here, Harry turned the conversation back to how Christmas had been.

Deciding now was as good a time as any, Harry decided to ask bluntly. "What do you know about giant three-headed dogs?"

Hagrid looked shocked. "How do yeh know about Fluffy?" he demanded.

Harry explained to him vaguely how he had discovered "Fluffy", leaving out the parts of it being nighttime or him using his invisibility cloak, making it sound like Filch was chasing him for no reason.

"Tha' old git." Hagrid muttered. "But anyway, I can't talk about Fluffy to yeh Harry, sorry. It's Hogwarts business, worth more than me job to tell yeh. Sorry."

Feigning academic interest, Harry tried one last time to coax information out of Hagrid.

"Can't you at least tell me what Fluffy is? I read all of _Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them_, and he's not in there at all."

"Well, Fluffys what yeh call a Cerberus. Special breed 'o dog, not very common. Real expensive too."

Mentally smacking himself for not guessing at what Fluffy's species was called before this, Harry thanked him for the tea and returned to the castle.

Back in the library, Harry read all he could about Cerberuses. They were all very large, very mean, and all had three heads. They had indeed inspired the muggle legends, and they were bred by special wizard beast masters to guard objects and locations. Cerberuses were among the most dangerous creatures that were technically legal to breed and domesticate.

That answered some of Harry's questions as to what a creature like _that_ was doing in a school full of _children_! Granted, he shouldn't have been out that late, but he could have been killed!

So "Fluffy" the Cerberus was guarding something, at least that's what Harry got from all the information he had. "Don't go in the dangerous forbidden corridor, or else the magical guard dog will eat you."

Cerberuses were used exclusively for guard duty, not talent shows or dog races, but for guard duty. What exactly the dog was guarding, Harry had no idea.

Even though he had decided against letting anyone know about the cloak, he decided he'd rather hear Hermione's opinion about all this. On her first day back, he got Hedwig to send her a note telling her to meet him outside the Gryffindor common room after everyone else had gone to bed, because he had something interesting to show her.

She gave him a disapproving look from across the hall, but nodded anyway.

Later that night, after carefully avoiding all the patrolling prefects (There were a lot more out and about now that everyone had returned to school from the Holidays) Harry arrived outside the Gryffindor Common room, where Hermione stood, peering about nervously. Getting an idea, Harry snuck around and behind her and said in her ear: "Hello"

Hermione yelped and jumped about a foot in the air. Harry took off the cloak, shaking with silent laughter and putting a finger to his lips.

"Shh! We don't want to be heard!"

Although he was sure there weren't any prefects in the immediate vicinity, he still wanted to stress how stealth was required for what they were doing.

Hermione crossed her arms and glared at him. "That wasn't funny." she said coldly.

"Was for me." Harry replied with a grin.

"Whatever. Why did you want me out here? You realize we're breaking the rules being out this late."

Harry thought back to how unlikely it would be for Hermione to break any rules before the troll incident, but not so much ever since. Probably because she realized that he had broken the rules to come rescue her.

"It's a secret." Harry said shortly.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what we're doing." She huffed.

"Just get under this." Harry said, revealing the Invisibility Cloak from behind him and wrapping it around himself. "And we won't be seen." he continued.

"Is that an invisibility cloak?" Hermione asked, that Hermione-ish look of curiosity beginning to take over her face.

"What was your first guess?"

Frowning, Hermione walked over as Harry draped the cloak around the pair of them and set off towards the forbidden corridor.

Once they reached the door and Harry unlocked it with a whispered Alohomora, Harry turned to her.

"Okay, it'll hopefully be asleep, so no matter what you do, don't scream or make any loud noises." he whispered.

A faint look of alarm battled with the curiosity on her face, but she nodded anyway as Harry opened the door. Thankfully, the moonlight pouring in from the windows revealed that Fluffy was indeed asleep, as well as negating the need to use a Illumination Charm, as that would probably wake the beast.

"W-what is that?" Hermione said, looking like she wanted to run.

"A Cerberus. His name is Fluffy." Harry said, happy to know something she didn't.

"Fluffy?" she said faintly.

"Yep."

"What do you think is under there?" Hermione said, pointing towards a barley visible trap door underneath one of Fluffy's paws.

"I don't know, but Cerberuses are guard dogs. So whatever it is, he's probably guarding it." Harry said, noticing the trapdoor. Only Hermione could notice an unassuming trapdoor in a room with a Cerberus.

"You don't say?" Hermione hissed "I know what Cerberuses are for. Honestly."

"Well, we'll try and ask Hagrid tomorrow, he owns Fluffy and he'll probably know. We should leave now, before he starts to wake up."

Hermione nodded, and they closed the door quietly and crept off back to Gryffindor tower.

"What do they possibly need guarding in a school full of children that they have to keep a secret?" Hermione wondered aloud.

"Beats me." Harry whispered back.

"I know Hogwarts has lots of protective enchantments guarding it, and it's regarded as one of the safest places in the world, but- What is it?" she asked, after Harry suddenly stopped.

"Back in July, before I went to school, Hagrid took me to my vault for money for supplies. We also visited another vault, seven-hundred and thirteen, and got this little package out of it, which Hagrid said was on Hogwarts business. That same day, somebody tried to break into that exact vault, but the newspaper said that it was emptied earlier that same day. And Hagrid told me the only place in the world safer than Gringotts was Hogwarts. Whatever was in that package, I think Fluffy is now guarding it."

Hermione was speechless all the way back to Gryffindor tower.

The next day, when they both had free time off from their newly resumed lessons, Harry and Hermione went down to visit Hagrid.

The moment they got there, Hermione spoke up. "So, what is Fluffy guarding that's under that trapdoor?"

"How do **_you_** know about Fluffy?" Hagrid demanded, his eyebrows retreating into his bushy hair in alarm.

"Sorry, I let slip I saw a Cerberus and she demanded to go see it." Harry said.

"I did not!" she protested.

"Listen, I know whatever Fluffy is guarding is what you took from vault 713 in Gringotts. Can't you tell me what's in it?" Harry asked.

"No, you listen. You're meddling in things that ought not to be meddled in. What Fluffy is guarding is strictly between Headmaster Dumbledore, and Nicholas Flamel."

"Who's Nicholas Flamel? That name seems familiar." Harry said.

"It's because we read it on the train ride over here, remember? On that chocolate frog card. _Professor Dumbledore is most famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindewald in 1945, the discovery of the twelve uses of Dragon's blood, and his work on Alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel_." Hermione recalled.

While Harry marvelled at Hermione's memorizing prowess, Hermione thanked Hagrid and they began to leave.

"No! Wait! Forget I said anything!" Hagrid said, looking furious with himself.

A/N as always, please review.


	5. Chapter 5: Snakes, Books, Spells, Mail

So, the idea of breezing through most non-significant events has certainly made this story a lot shorter. I'm probably more than half way done already, and then I can begin to prepare for Harry's second year, and where things really start to kick off.

**Harry Potter And The House Of The Serpent**

Chapter 5: Snakes, Books, Spells, Mail.

It did not take Harry and his friends long to find out what Fluffy was more than likely guarding.

The night after he showed Hermione, he told, rather than showed, his Slytherin friends about Fluffy and the trapdoor immediately after giving them their late Christmas presents.

They declined the offer of being taken to see Fluffy in person, as "they took his word for it." Personally, he'd rather not go back either. Last time when he had been in the area (on the way to the mirror again) he had been caught by Headmaster Dumbledore himself and given a talking to about the dangers of mental decline while being in the prolonged presence of the Mirror Of Erised. (As he now knew it to be called)

By the time next morning rolled around, Hermione had already made an educated guess as to what Fluffy was guarding. The most valuable possession Nicholas Flamel was known to own, the item that made him famous in the first place, no less, was the Philosopher's Stone, which turned any metal into gold and produced an elixir that made the drinker immortal. Neat stuff like that.

While they couldn't be sure, when Hermione expressed her theory to Harry's other friends, they all agreed, seeing no possible alternative. Nicholas Flamel led a rather quiet and private life, and they doubted he had anything he'd need guarding more than the Philosopher's Stone.

All that left to be settled, in their eyes, was who was trying to steal it in the first place.

That, unfortunately, likely couldn't be discovered in one of the books in the library, which is where Harry and his friends found themselves more and more.

After everyone had returned, January had flew by in the haze of resuming classes, as did February, bringing with it Harry's (and Slytherin's) Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. Harry caught the Snitch handily, of course, and Slytherin's Chasers completely outclassed their blue rivals.

Being the first match since the broom incident possibly involving Professor Quirrel or Professor Snape, Headmaster Dumbledore himself attended this game. Harry's suspicion about him wanting to make sure nobody tries to curse his broom again were confirmed when Flint claimed Dumbledore rarely attended Quidditch matches, and even then, the ones he did were usually the finals.

In what seemed like no time after that, the snow had completely melted, spring began to dawn and Hermione began incessantly reminding Harry and any of his friends who would listen that exams were coming and that they should intensify their studies.

Day after day of memorizing every possible question that could be asked went by, until Blaise could take it no more.

"I don't care if I fail my exam, it's not worth any more of this." he said, rubbing his eyes.

"Suit yourself. Just remember when you can't get a job a few years from now that you'd rather rest your eyes than study for your exam." smirked Theo.

"Can't we just take a short break? Who do you reckon is after that stone?" Blaise asked, trying to change the subject from exams.

"Not this again." Daphne said with a sigh.

"We've been over this before, Blaise." Harry said, correcting a spelling error he had made in one of his essays.

"Yeah, but the culprit could be obviously sitting right under our noses, waiting for us to figure it out. Plus, a good mystery story is always more entertaining than studying." Blaise said.

"I don't see why you care so much. He's not going to get it. He was too incompetent to steal it from Gringotts, what makes you think he's going to succeed with Dumbledore around?" Theo demanded.

"I didn't say he was going to get it, I just wondered who it was. It'd be nice to know." Blaise defended himself.

Madam Pince swooped over and hissed at them to be quiet, so the conversation resumed in whispers.

"I guess I can see your point. If we know who it is, we'll be able to watch out for him. Maybe we could capture him and turn him into the teachers for a reward. If he's a criminal, he's probably got a nice price on his head." Theo said. "I'll look into what I can find out." he continued.

"Oh, please!" whispered Daphne. "You're first years. He's clearly a dangerous wizard with knowledge of the dark arts for him to break into Gringotts. What makes you think a first year - or even a group of them - could capture him?"

"First of all, "Oh please!" yourself. Everyone says you need Dark Magic to break into Gringotts, but that's just what most people call spells they don't know. It's called cursebreaking, and you can make a living out of it working for Gringotts it's self. Second of all, I am a Nott. Notts have always been skilled duelists. My father has a library filled with books of defensive and offensive curses. If he's just a petty thief, we should be able to handle him. Besides, even if he is an adult, word has it most adults at the ministry can't even cast a decent shield charm or stunner." Theo replied confidently.

"You don't need to get him yourself! I'm pretty sure there's more than that Cerberus guarding the stone. Why else was a troll in the castle in the first place? It probably wandered off from it's guard duty and got lost. And what if he's not a petty thief and he is dangerous?" asked Daphne.

"Well, that's why we'd wait to discover his identity first before we act, obviously. I wouldn't try anything before I knew who he was. Do I look like a Gryffindor?"

"Hey!" said Hermione, reproachful.

"You know what I mean." said Theo. "Try and tell me all the boys in your year aren't reckless dunces."

"Neville is really nice, and he isn't reckless or a dunce." Hermione defended.

"What about Weasley or Finnigan?" sneered Theo.

Hermione rolled his eyes in a way that betrayed that she couldn't quite deny that and went back to her homework.

"Why don't we ask Dumbledore who the thief is?" suggested Tracey.

"Tracey, if Dumbledore knew who it was, don't you think he would have gone after him and turned him into a cabbage or something by now? And what makes you think he'd tell us?" said Theo.

"Yes, but he also could just be waiting for him to show up here and try and take the stone. He has better things to do besides chasing thieves around the country, he has a school to manage. It'd be better to stay here and wait for the thief to come to him." Tracey shot back.

"You didn't answer my second question."

"You didn't respond to my theory."

"Knock it off, both of you." said Daphne.

"Anyway, I can show you some of those spells I was talking about later. They're pretty wicked." Theo offered. "We'll find a spare classroom to practice in."

"Sounds cool. I'm in." said Blaise.

"I guess so." Daphne said.

"Me too." Tracey said idly, immersed in a textbook.

"Absolutely!" said Harry.

"Good." Theo said smoothly. "And you?" he said, everyone now looking at Hermione.

Looking up from her homework, Hermione looked skeptical.

"Oh, alright. I guess it can't hurt to learn some new spells. I'll see if I have any free time from revising whenever you're planning to do this."

"Excellent." said Theo, beginning to stand up.

"Where're you going?" asked Blaise.

"To find a classroom to practice in. Do join me when you're done." replied Theo, smoothing his robes.

"What about your homework?"

"I've already finished." Theo sniffed, leaving the room.

"WHAT?!" Blaise said, looking down in horror at his homework. "How is he done already?"

"Maybe because he didn't keep taking breaks." Hermione said absently.

Blaise scowled and returned to his homework.

As soon as they had all finished their homework, they joined Theo in an empty classroom, where they discussed what spells they'd like to practice and then dispersed, agreeing to meet again the next day.

"Really, that was pathetic. I barely got a cramp." Theo said with a sneer, as Daphne failed to cast the full body bind once more.

"You do it this way." Theo said. Raising his wand, he shouted _Petrificus Totalus._

Daphne tried to block it, but failed in that attempt as well. Her arms and legs snapped together and she collapsed onto the floor.

"That makes me the winner of three consecutive duels. Do try and step up your game, Greengrass."

With only her eyes capable of moving, Daphne glared up at him.

"Do you know the countercurse, this time?" asked Harry.

They had each paired up into dueling partners. Tracey vs Blaise, Theodore vs Daphne and Harry vs Hermione. Harry and Hermione had been preparing to practice the leg locker curse on eachother, when Hermione had had the sense to ask if they knew the countercurse first, sparing either of them from having to wobble around with their legs magically bound together.

Instead the others took several short minutes to track down the counter-curse in a dusty old tome of Theo's.

"Um... yes?" Theo said uncertainly.

"Oh, honestly." said Hermione. Pointing her wand at Daphne, she called _Finite Incantatem_. "Thanks, Granger." Daphne was freed from the full body bind and got up, glaring at Theo with her hands on her hips.

"I told you I knew it." Theo said, feigning confidence. "I was just making sure Granger here knew it."

"I'm sure." said Daphne icily.

"Er, lets try another spell!" Theo said, turning around to the book which lay open on the table. The moment his back was turned, Daphne pointed her want at him and hit him with a stickfast hex. He tripped out of his shoes, which were magically bound to the floor and fell over.

Looking dishevelled, Theo scrambled up and attempted to wrench his shoes from the floor, but to no avail.

"Sorry, I don't know the countercurse." smirked Daphne.

Tracey and Blaise resumed practicing hexes, jinxes and curses on eachother while Harry and Hermione attempted the disarming charm on eachother, while Theo frantically searched through his book for the countercurse to the stickfast hex.

Harry was surprised that he could "duel" on a level playing field with Hermione. She always did better in class than him, seemed to master spells quicker than him, and knew a greater amount of spells than him.

The only advantage Harry had over her (as exhibited by their mock dueling sessions) was his superior reflexes and reaction time, not to mention his, as Theo put it, "greater magical power"

Theo explained about how there was no exact way to measure it, but backed up his theory with the evidence of complex and powerful spells being impossible to cast at a younger age, and the more spells you cast, the more physically drained you felt. As if you had been running or exercising for hours, when in reality, all they had been doing was dodging the odd spell and casting your own.

Theo said it was generally accepted that certain wizards had more raw magical power than others did, citing one of the reasons Dumbledore was considered the greatest wizard alive was due to his abnormal amounts of magical power, which were displayed at even a young age, in addition to them being complimented by his immense knowledge of spells and his own unrivalled dueling skills and reflexes.

To test this, Theo had Harry and Hermione attempt to cast a shield charm, which was supposedly advanced magic, nearing the OWL level, which they wouldn't be on until around fifth year.

When Hermione tried, a ripple in the air came out the end of her wand, but nothing else happened when a spell was shot through it. When Harry did it, he wasn't actually protected by any minor jinxes like he was supposed to be, but the effects of the spells passing through the slight ripple in the air were somewhat diminished. Also confirming Theo's theory was that he had felt completely winded after casting it.

Back in the present, Theo appeared to have found the countercurse to the stickfast hex. While "_Finite Incantatem_" worked on many different curses to cease their effects, on some it triggered a negative reaction, while other times it simply didn't work at all.

Harry and his friends had been at this for a few days now, and had mastered the stinging jinx, tripping jinx, stickfast hex and leg locker curse, and were currently practicing the full body bind and disarming charm.

So far everyone had cast both at least once, all except Daphne, who was having problems with her full body bind.

"You're not concentrating enough." Theo said, when Daphne was unsuccessful once more in her attempt to preform the full body bind on him. "I do hope you get the hang of it soon. Being around all you amateurs is holding me back. I've mastered all of these spells already, and several more beyond that. This is all child's play for me." he said pompously.

"Oh really? Do your worst Nott." scoffed Daphne.

"My pleasure. Serpensortia!" with a bang like a gunshot and a flash of white light, a snake burst out the end of Theo's wand and landed at Daphne's feet. With a shriek of "Snake!" she dashed behind Harry.

The snake quickly slithered under Harry's robes and began climbing up his leg, tickling his shin.

"Hey, get off!" Harry said, grinning while he bent down and pulled the snake off of him. On closer inspection, it was rather small and harmless, and from what he knew about snakes, he sincerely doubted it was one of the poisonous variety. It rather resembled the Grass Snake that he had seen at the Zoo's Reptile House with the Dursley's

"Relax, it's just a Grass snake." he said, turning to Daphne, who had a gobsmacked expression on her face.

"What? Why are you so afraid of snakes? You're in Slytherin." he joked. When she continued to say nothing, he turned to his other friends who had similar expressions on their faces, ranging from shock to fear to awe to pride.

"You're a parselmouth." Blaise deadpanned.

"A what?"

"A parselmouth." exclaimed Theo. "Someone who can converse with snakes."

"So? I thought it was something every wizard can do."

"It really, really isn't, Harry." said Tracey, looking uncharacteristically serious.

"Why didn't you tell us you could speak to snakes?"

"I already said I thought it was something everyone can do! And how often does that come up in conversation? Besides, I only did it once when I talked to a Boa Constrictor at the zoo a few months back." Harry said.

"Well it's exceedingly rare, and usually passed down by ancestors. Was your father a parselmouth?" asked Blaise.

"I don't know, I never thought to ask."

"What about your mother?"

"She was a muggleborn, you know that already." said Harry, starting to get annoyed. Why were they treating this so seriously?

"That doesn't mean anything. They might not have been muggles, but squibs from an old pureblood family." said Theo, looking thoughtful.

"A squib?" said Harry blankly.

"It's like the opposite of a muggleborn. Somebody born to wizard parents but who can't do magic." explained Tracey.

"I'd keep this ability a secret if I were you." said Theo slowly. "It's got a lot of negative stereotypes attached to it. A lot of evil wizards were parselmouths. Although, not all parselmouths were evil wizards, and not all evil wizards are parselmouths."

"Wait a minute, how'd you even find out I was a parselmouth? I spoke to the snake like I'm talking to you now."

"No, you didn't. You hissed at it. It's the language of snakes, you sound like a snake while speaking to one. Supposedly Parselmouths don't really notice it unless they're paying close attention." said Blaise.

Meanwhile Hermione was just looking curious. "Can you have a conversation with it? Did it say anything?"

"No..." said Harry slowly. "You want me to try talking to it?"

"It won't respond to you." Theo said impatiently, with a wave of his hand. "It's a special curse that conjures the magical imitation of a snake, not a real one, so it can't speak. It can't even hurt you. If the spell works properly, it's meant to be large and venomous, not a Grass snake. I've done it properly before." he huffed.

"Anyway, being an imitation, it won't respond. We won't be conjuring actual animals until fifth year."

"Wait! Does this mean he's?" Daphne exclaimed suddenly, her eyes bulging out at him.

"You know very well there were families of parselmouths other than Slytherin, Daphne." said Tracey impatiently.

"We should get him to check his genealogy book I got him for Christmas! That'll settle it!" said Daphne excitedly.

"I'd just drop it if I were you. Better to not let this get out." said Theo ominously.

"Or else everyone will get stupid ideas. The ignorance of some people. It won't help that you were sorted into Slytherin, either. Just because this house doesn't cover up the fact a few of it's students have been exceedingly twisted suddenly means everyone who was ever evil came from this house. Then there's being a parselmouth it's self. Everyone thinks Parselmouth means dark and dark means evil and all that other hogwash." Theo said, glowering.

"What do you mean, dark means evil? Of course it does." said Hermione.

"No, it doesn't. It's like saying Slytherins are bad people simply because it's arguable their traits are most easily corrupted. Any of the other houses could corrupt their traits for evil as well. Knowing Dark Magic makes you a Dark Wizard, but it's what you do with your powers that makes you evil, not that you have them in the first place." Theo said.

"I don't follow." said Hermione.

"Look at it this way. Between you and me, Professor Snape studied a lot of dark magic while in school, and he knows how to use it. Do you see him rampaging about, slaughtering people? No. He's trustworthy enough to be a teacher in a school filled with children, despite him technically landing under the classification of Dark Wizard.

Salazar Slytherin himself, while having some - controversial - views and opinions, was a dark wizard, but not a mass murdering dark lord like Grindewald and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Between you and me, my father and mother know a lot of that stuff, but they're not monsters. All I'm saying is, a lot of people are superstitious and narrow minded. I wouldn't let it get out." Theo lectured.

There was a brief pause, broken by Tracey.

"I know you said knowing dark magic and being a "Dark wizard" don't make you evil, but didn't your father... wasn't he...?" Tracey trailed off uncertainly.

"Regardless of what you heard about my father or his past, he encourages me to be my own person and form my own opinions and views. He said too many people find themselves in undesirable situations simply because they failed to stand up for themselves and show a little individuality." Theo said with a scowl.

Harry didn't know what the surprised and thoughtful looks Daphne, Tracey and Blaise were giving to Theo, but he didn't really have time to ponder it as the silence was broken once more.

"So, about your genealogy book. Can I borrow it and look for you then? I'd look through my own, but it's a few years outdated." Daphne eagerly said.

"Er, no, sorry. I'm kind of busy still reading it." lied Harry. In truth, he had looked through it briefly enough to find out that one of his closest blood relatives (other than the Dursleys) was actually Draco Malfoy and his parents. Harry's grandmother on his father's side, Dorea Potter nee Black, was the sister of Draco's great Grandfather.

Other than that, he read enough to find out that it seemed like all of the "pureblood" families were related in some way.

Idly fiddling with his house crest, an unanswered question came to Harry.

"Wait, did you say Slytherin was a parselmouth?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Yes. Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth. That's why Slytherin house's symbol is a serpent. He's the most famous Parselmouth, but there were plenty of other parselmouth around both before and after him. If you're insinuating Harry is a descendant of Slytherin, you'll find that difficult to prove or disprove. He lived a thousand years ago, he could be related to anyone by this point." said Hermione.

Everyone else in the room besides him and Hermione looked faintly alarmed.

"Anyway, how about we get back to practicing." cut in Blaise.

Later that night, Harry lay awake in bed for hours, thinking. He finally got out of bed and retrieved the genealogy book he received from Daphne for Christmas, out of his trunk.

After a while of searching his own family tree, he found to his immense surprise that he was, in fact, distantly related to Slytherin. If he traced his father's line back far enough, it resulted from a marriage involving a member of the Perverell family, who were possible descendants of Salazar Slytherin. And upon further investigation, he appeared to be the last living descendant from those particular ancestors as well.

While one member had no offspring, the other's descendants were known as the Gaunts, who apparently had no children past the most recent and now deceased member, Merope, while the last family member of the Perverells had descended into the Potters.

It being so long ago, the author apparently was unable to find out if the Perverell brother that was Harry's ancestor was related to Slytherin through the marriage of one of his older brothers, meaning the Perverell family married into the Slytherin line, or that the Perverells were actual blood descendants of Slytherin. Either way, Harry was the last known relative of Slytherin, through blood or no. He assumed it had to be by blood; how else did he inheret the ability to speak Parseltounge? Unless it was some odd magic that made you a Parselmouth simply for being related to Slytherin?

Putting the book back and shaking his head, Harry decided to keep it hidden from his friends. And unlike his cloak, he wasn't likely to reveal the secret easily.

A few weeks later and all parselmouth talk disappeared as their practice sessions had them master more and more complex spells.

Theo, Blaise and Hermione were the best at learning new spells, while Harry, Tracey and Hermione won the most duels overall against their various partners. Despite her skill and intellect, Harry's other friends frequently volunteered to be Hermione's partner, as they were apparently eager for an excuse to jinx a Gryffindor.

While Quidditch practice sessions had gotten less frequent due to the approaching exams, they did become longer and more intense due to Slytherin's final match coming up against Hufflepuff, which would decide who won the Quidditch Cup.

Meanwhile rumors were flying about the school that Professor Dumbledore had to confiscate a young Dragon that had been sheltering in Hagrid's house. While Harry visited Hagrid frequently over his stay at Hogwarts, the gamekeeper had become somewhat secretive and paranoid the last few weeks, but Harry seriously doubted Hagrid would try and raise a dragon in his wooden house.

While he had said he would love to own a dragon, and he was fond of the more exotic variety of animals, Hagrid still knew a great deal about magical creatures and therefore would have known Dragons were highly dangerous to own, not to mention illegal.

Shortly after, Hagrid had needed volunteers for a trip into the Forbidden Forest for something to do with unicorns, and a couple of fifth year Hufflepuffs that had detention attended.

When they came back, they were acting oddly, jumping at small sounds and shivering despite it being early summer. Nobody seemed to know what happened, and those involved certainly weren't telling, leading to wild rumors running rampant inside the castle.

As the end-of-year exams came closer and closer, the more homework was piled upon Harry and the rest of the first years. Very little conversation went on inside the common room, with everyone bent over their homework, struggling to complete it as soon as humanly possible, due to the unspoken restriction on leisurely activities until every last piece of homework was finished.

While Theodore Nott was in his corner of the room reading some book or another, he was doing so practicially non stop these days. Even Pansy had ceased talking about fashion and jewellery and whatnot and Draco had ceased talking about all the Quidditch matches he had gone to see with his mother and father.

The practice sessions Harry had been having with his friends had been called off due to even less free time spent away from studying. It had culminated in them all attempting to master the serpent summoning spell after Daphne had finally mastered the full body bind curse.

While Harry had been able to conjure a European Adder which was slightly venomous, and Hermione had only managed to conjure a rattlesnake, Tracey, Blaise and Daphne's snakes remained the non venomous variety. But all of them paled in comparison to Theo's magnificent King Cobra.

"I told you I'd done it properly before." he said, smirking triumphantly at them all.

Harry noticed that the 5th and 7th years were the only ones seemingly under stress besides the 1st years. A fourth year told him it was due to the OWL (Ordinary Wizarding Level) examinations for the 5th years and the NEWT (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test) exams, and the first years because this was their first exam, despite the fact (between you and me, the boy had said) your exam results matter very little until the 5th year OWLs, causing the other years to feel free to slack off despite the proximity of their exams.

When he tried to tell his friends this, Hermione and Theo scoffed and brushed it off, while Blaise and Daphne appeared alot more relaxed, and Tracey had dismissed it as well.

"It still needs to be done, wether or not the results matter. If you're going to do something, you may as well do it right."

Seemingly, the only time Theo wasn't huddled in his corner over a book, was when he was receving exceptionally large letters and sending back hefty replies himself. When asked about it, he told them it was none of their buisness until he finally relented and informed them he had hired a private investigator from Knockturn Alley to see what they can find out about the thief attempting to obtain the Philosopher's Stone.

Daphne had scoffed at this, making fun of his aspirations to capture the thief in question.

Harry was not only anxious due to the exams, but due to the fact the last Quidditch match of the year was soon approaching, sometime shortly after or during exams. While he had caught the snitch both previous times with relative ease, and his own team's chasers were very effective, he knew that this upcoming match was the most crucial.

By the time the exams were fully underway, Theo had informed Harry and his friends that his private investigator had concluded that the potential theif was a part of Hogwarts staff.

After everyone's shock and Hermione's skepticism subsided, Theo had said that exactly _who_ was unknown, and the potential theif included basicially everyone except for Professor Dumbledore himself.

While everyone was suspect because, "Come on, who wouldn't want unlimited money and the elixer of life?" the most likley candidates were Professor Snape, due to his apparent membership among the rank's of Voldemort's followers during the war before he became a spy for Professor Dumbledore.

Professor Flitwick due to his goblin heritage and the inherent fondness of treasure such as the stone.

And Quirrel because he had been on a year long sabbatical before aquiring the DADA job and "Could have been involved in any number of things" while abroad, not to mention his reclusive personality which "May just be a diversion so no one suspects him. People pretend to be shy and reclusive so they can keep a low profile and go by unexpected." the letter from Theo's investigator had said, and lastly his alleghed attempt to curse Harry's broom during his Quidditch match against Gryffindor.

Deciding to not get involved in it anyway as the Stone was supposedly safe, they all had gone back to revising for their examinations.

In a week's time, the exams came and went, and Hermione's unfounded fears about not doing well were curbed by the knowledge that she had done the best in their year (Although the exam results hadn't yet arrived, she had preformed every spell and handed in every essay without any obvious flaws, unlike Harry or anybody besides her that he knew.)

However on the night after the exams concluded, he suddenly lurched awake due to hammering on his adjoining door. Shuffling out of bed and opening it, it revealed a harrased looking Draco Malfoy and a half excited half nervous looking Theodore Nott.

"He wanted to talk to you. I'm going back to bed." yawned Draco.

"What is it?" Harry asked, rubbing the drowsiness from his eyes.

"It's Quirrel." proclaimed Theo.

A/N this was most likely the second last chapter of _House Of The Serpent_. Apparently, the longer the chapter felt writing, the shorter it actually is. Oh well, expect the final chapter(or two?) out within the next week (hopefully)


	6. Chapter 6: The Pursuit of Quirrel

**Harry Potter And The House Of The Serpent**

Chapter 6: The Pursuit Of Quirrel

"What's Quirrel?" Harry asked drowsily.

"I was in the library since after dinner, and on my way back, I checked the third floor corridor to hear if that Cerberus is still snoring, like I do every night.  
When I got there, I saw Quirrel heading down the corridor and through the door! He's the thief, and he's going after the stone!"

Harry, now fully awake, felt his heart hammering with excitement and anticipation. "What are we going to do?"

"Get the others, and go after him." Theo said solemnly.

"He's a teacher! Isn't this a bit dangerous?" Harry asked.

"It's only Quirrel. Stuttering weak fool, even if he's not half as pathetic as I think he is, there's more than one of us. We can handle him. We go in, follow him, capture him and boom! Awards for services to the school, I should think, and maybe the front page of the Daily Prophet." Theo said confidently.

"This is crazy."

"Yet the concept intrigues you. Admit it." said Theo, now attempting to leave the room through the door that led to the hallway.

"It won't open. It needs the owner of the room to open it." Theo said impatiently.

"I know, just give me a second." said Harry, rummaging in his trunk for his Invisibility Cloak after procuring his wand from his bedside table.

"Alright, let's go."

Opening the door, Theo and Harry raced down the corridor and banged on Blaise's door. They heard somebody moving around inside, letting them know they had at least stirred Blaise.

"Should we go get Draco, Vince and Greg?" Harry asked.

"No way. Not only do they not know about this whole operation, d'you really want to share all the glory with any more people than necessary?" Theo said with a scowl.

"I guess not." Harry said uncertainly, as Blaise opened the door. Theo was acting a lot more confident than Harry certainly felt.

"What in Merlin's name did you wake me up for?" Blaise demanded. "Do you have any idea what time it is? This better be good."

"Quirrel's gone after the stone. We're going after him." Harry and Theo said in unison.

Blaise instantly looked wide awake and dashed into his room, returning with his wand.

"Nice slippers." Theo said, gesturing towards the blue, fluffy bunnies on Blaise's feet as they raced through the passageway towards where the girl's and boy's dorms split off.

"Shut it. Mother gave them to me as a gift. It would be rude not to accept them." Blaise said, irritated.

"I'm sure." Theo said, smirking.

Blaise rolled his eyes as they banged on the door leading to the girl's dorms.

After about a minute, the door slid open to reveal a cross looking Pansy Parkinson.

"What do you want?" she said coldly.

"We wish to speak with Daphne and Tracey. You can go back to bed once you get them." said Blaise.

"Can I?" sneered Pansy, leaving. A few moments later, Daphne and Tracey appeared, wands already in hand.

"The thief has gone after th-"

"We know." Interrupted Tracey and Daphne. "You'd know that you'd get hexed for waking us at this unholy hour unless you had a good reason." Tracey said.

"So who's the thief?" Daphne said as they set out.

"Quirrel. The investigator was right, it's who we least suspected. Except for that nasty bit with the broom." said Theo

"How'd you find out anyway?" asked Blaise

Theo explained to them all about what he had seen on his return from the library.

"What were you doing in the library after curfew?" Daphne demanded.

"Playing Quidditch. What do you think I was doing? It's a library, I was reading."

"Figures. Only you'd risk detention and loss of house points to read. Everyone else would be doing something fun when they sneak out after curfew, but you're reading."

"Knowledge is power." said Theo smoothly.

"Explains why you're so weak then." Daphne said.

"So, how many times did it take you to cast the full body bind properly?" Theo shot back.

"Enough!" snapped Tracey. "Keep quiet you dunces. We don't want to be heard and caught before we even get there."

"Tracey's right. We have to be careful, Although I brought the cloak, it can't cover all of us, so we have to be cautious. I think one of us should scout ahead under the cloak to keep a lookout for anyone in our path." Harry said. His nerves were starting to act up. He was feeling as nervous as he had during his sorting.

"Harrys right. I'll go with him and the cloak, you guys trail behind and move up only when I signal you to." Tracey said.

"Why do you need two people to scout ahead?" Blaise asked, frowning.

"Two heads are better than one?" Tracey offered, shrugging. "Fine, I don't want to be around those two morons while they're bickering."

"We're not morons." exclaimed Theo and Daphne.

"You're not going to leave me with them, are you?" said Blaise.

"Everyone for themselves." Tracey smirked.

Just as Tracey slipped under the cloak, a thought struck Harry.

"What about Hermione?"

"What about her?" sneered Theo.

"She could help us with this. She does know about the stone and the suspected thieves. How do we get to her? She's in Gryffindor tower."

"We could ask a portrait to contact her..." Tracey said thoughtfully.

"No need, Granger was sleeping in the library when I left." Theo said.

"Really?"

"Yea, she does that a lot lately. Seeing as exams had stopped, you'd think the teacher's pet would have stopped, but_ nooo_. We can just go get her, but I don't see why we need her."  
Theo said.

"That girl has a lot of valuable knowledge, and she's pretty smart." said Tracey.

"I know." Theo said grudgingly.

After they completed the short trip to the library, with many stops to check for patrolling prefects or teachers, Harry and Tracey threw off the cloak and shook Hermione awake at her table.

"Wake up, Granger." said Tracey impatiently.

"W-what is it?"

"Get up, we have to go." Tracey said shortly.

"What are you doing out this late? It's past curfew, and I know I'm out, but I feel asleep!" Hermione said, confused.

"Quirrel's the thief, and he's gone after the stone. We're going after him, move it." Tracey ordered.

"What? You can't be serious. Hey, don't push! This is probably breaking a dozen rules and could be very dangerous, you know. We could be expelled!"

"It can't be more dangerous or break more rules than going after a troll." said Harry with a smirk.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" said Hermione, exasperated.

"As long as it gets you to do fun things, then yes."

Hermione sighed resignedly as she snuck out of the library under the cloak with Harry and Tracey.

After re-grouping outside the library, they set off towards the third floor corridor, all the while whispering the details of what they knew to Hermione.

"So Theodore actually saw him? He just doesn't seem the type." Hermione said uncertainly.

"Exactly. It's probably been an act this entire time." said Tracey.

As they rounded the last corner before the forbidden corridor, Peeves the poltergeist swooped down upon their group.

"Hellooooo ickle firsties! Watcha doin' out this late, creeping about? It's against the rules, it is. Should tell Filch, I should." Peeves said with a voice of feigned innocence.

"Evening, Peeves." Theo began formally. "We were just out for a midnight stroll. How have you been?"

Peeves looked surprised for a second at being addressed in such a respectful manner. He recovered instantly and threw a piece of chalk at Theo.

Theo scowled and opened his mouth in anger to say something, but Blaise quickly covered it.

"We just snuck out of our common rooms after dark for a very ambitious mission that would cause mayhem and break countless rules. I'm sure you'd approve." Tracy said reverenly, as if she were addressing a member of the royal family.

"It'd be for your own good if you were caught, you know." giggled Peeves. "'Tis dangerous for little firsties such as yourselves to be out and about after dark. You could hurt your little wee toes" he said, whacking Blaise over the foot with a walking stick.

"Hey!"

"Did I mention it will likely include destruction of school property?" Tracey said, cutting off Blaise.

"Yes, the whole school will hear about it by tomorrow." Blaise said, catching on.

"I'm sure it will make Mr. Filch very angry." added Daphne.

"If we get caught, we could loose a lot of points. But if we were to be caught before we even got started, why, that would be a lost opportunity for mayhem. Surely you don't want that Mr. Peeves?" asked Tracey.

"No, Peeves wouldn't want that..." the Poltergeist said, rubbing his chin and looking thoughtful.

While he thought, Harry and his friends waited with baited breath, terrified of being given away at any moment by Peeves calling for Filch.

"Have fun!" Peeves finally cackled, upending a bag of chalk on them and zooming away, rattling suits of armor as he went.

The group let out a collective sigh of relief as they resumed their stroll down the corridor towards the door which concealed Fluffy, the Cerberus.

"I can't believe that worked." Hermione whispered.

"That's why I'm in Slytherin. Some people are so easy to manipulate, and I'm not ashamed of using them." Tracey said, jutting her chin in the air and looking dignified.

"Peeves isn't a person, he's a poltergeist."

"Whatever."

They had arrived at the door. Harry quietly crept forward and eased the door open, peering through. There lay Fluffy, heavily immersed in sleep. In the corner a harp played.

"Of course!" Daphne said. "Some Cerberuses need to have music played to them to put them into enchanted sleep."

"That seems like an obvious weakness." Harry said.

"It's mostly a back door for the owner of the dog to use when he needs to get at whatever the dog is guarding." Daphne replied.

"Move it! I think I hear somebody coming." hissed Theo.

One by one they shimmied through the narrow gap between the door and closed it quietly behind them. Fluffy dozed on.

"Now what?" Blaise asked.

"We - we go through that trapdoor." Harry said, nodding at what little of the door they could see with it being almost completely covered by one of the dogs paws.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Blaise demanded stiffly.

"I guess we move the paw out of the way." Harry said. He was acting a lot more brave than he felt.

One by one they bent down and heaved Fluffy's paw off of the trapdoor, while Daphne kept a watch on Fluffy himself.

"This is insane. We've been spending too much time around the Gryffindor." Theo said, nodding to Hermione.

"Hey, it was your idea!" Hermione said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I know, but I just pictured... I don't know - ambushing him or something, outside this door - before we had to go about near deadly hounds." Theo huffed.

"Just open it!" Tracey hissed.

Harry and Blaise heaved open the trapdoor and peered inside. It was just infinite blackness, with no visible end.

"Who's going down first?" Blaise asked.

"How about you?" Daphne prompted.

"No way. I'm not jumping down onto what I can't see." he hissed.

"Move over!" Tracey said impatiently, pulling out her wand and pointing it through the trapdoor, and incanting _Lumos_.

"I can sort of see the bottom. It doesn't look that far down." she whispered. "Hang on." pulling a stone from her pocket, she peered around distrustfully before seemingly patting it, and dropping it down the hole. A few seconds later there was a soft flump as it made contact.

"Whatever it is, the floor seems to be soft." she wagered. "I guess I'll go first."

"What was with that rock?" Blaise asked, confused.

"Nothing. It's just a muggle pet rock my father gave me. He says everyone had one when he was a kid." Tracey said evasively.

"A pet rock?" Theo said with amusement.

"Would you morons go already! Being around this giant beast is making me nervous!" Daphne hissed.

Tracey promptly leapt down, and after a few seconds another flump was heard.

"I'm alright! It's safe to jump down!" she called up.

By the time they had all landed, Tracey was leaning uncomfortably against one of the walls, pocketing her pet rock. "I wouldn't get to comfortable if I were you." she said with a grin. "We landed on Devil's Snare."

"WHAT?" Blaise practicially shrieked. He leapt up as if struck by lightning and flattened himself against a wall, dodging the tendrils that had begun to creep towards him.

Harry barley made it away in time too, having to mutter a quick _Diffindo_ to get a tendril off that had surrounded his ankle. He remembered learning about Devil's Snare in Herbology. If you were caught unawares, the plant could strangle you to death.

Theo, Hermione and Daphne weren't so lucky. "Guys..." Daphne called. "I can't remember what we were supposed to do to get away from this thing." she said fearfully as vines began to wrap around her torso.

Meanwhile, Theo simply looked irritated.

"How dare it!" he spat, plunging his hand into his robes and retrieving his wand. With a shouted _Incendio_, flame leapt from his wand and lit the tendrils on fire that had now begun to encircle his legs. As soon as he was clear, he freed Daphne from her predicament, while Hermione cast bluebell flames on the vines assailing her.

"Bloody plant." Blaise muttered.

"Where's Quirrel?" Daphne asked.

"I guess he got past this." Theo grumbled. "Let's go."

Harry and his friends continued down the dripping corridor. Although he thought he felt wide awake when Theo first told him Quirrel had gone after the stone, his brain only now seemed to wake up.

He was out, after dark, somewhere in the unfamiliar parts of the dungeons, with no teacher knowing where they were. hoping to get past potentially dangerous challenges that protected the stone, all to climax in a probable fight against a teacher, even if he was a weak one like Quirrel.

He ceased his musings when they came to another stop outside yet another door. The faint sound of fluttering wings could be heard.

"I'll take a look inside." Harry muttered. As much as he was having misgivings about the current situation, he had made his choice, and there wasn't any turning back now. Come to think of it, how could they even make their way back? Would they have to wait down here until a teacher found them? How long would that be?

Harry opened the door peaked through to the room with the fluttering sound. It was completely empty, with nothing blocking his passage to the door on the other end of the room. He was about to proceed when a faint shimmering from above caught his eye.

Craning his neck upwards, Harry discovered the source of the fluttering sound. Birds. Or bugs. Or something. Hundreds of them, loudly fluttering about.

"I think they'll attack us if we try to go through..." Daphne, who had also stepped into the doorway, said uncertainly.

"Only one way to find out." Harry said, creeping carefully towards the door, with Hermione joining him a second later. All through their cautious journey the fluttering things above them didn't once break from their routine maneuvers. Once they had reached the door uneventfully, it was found to be locked. Hermione tried the unlocking charm, but that failed to have an effect on the door, which remained stubbornly locked.

"What do we do?" Blaise asked, once the others had joined them by the door.

"You probably did it wrong." Theo said witheringly, pulling out his own wand. Once his whispered _Alohomora_ failed to have an effect, he glared at the door like it was a personal affront.

"There's more than one way to open a door." he scowled. "_Diffindo_!" A small gouge was made in the door, which began to widen with repeated use of the severing charm.

"What are you doing?" Daphne demanded.

"Cutting a hole in the door, and then I'm going to reach through and open it from the other side. Simple, like you." Theo said, incanting _Diffindo_ over and over. Harry and the others quickly joined in, and they had soon carved out the borders of a sizable hole, when Theo ordered them back.

"This could be dangerous. Ignoring the obvious wood splinters, this door could have a nasty reaction once we force it open. Quirrel must have known better unlocking charms than us, so he didn't have to force his way through."

Pointing his wand at the outlined circle of wood, Theo flourished his wand and incanted _Flipendo_.

A jet of orange light flew forward, knocking the weakened block of wood out of the door, sending splinters flying everywhere while the group covered their eyes.

"Is anyone hurt?" Tracey was the first to ask.

"No, I'm fine."

"I'm alright."

"Just a few cuts on my hand."

"My robe is tattered."

"I could be worse."

Meanwhile Theo marched up to the door and reached through the hole and grabbed the handle from the other side. Nothing happened.

"Did you honestly expect that to work?" Hermione asked. "Just because you're using the handle from the other side doesn't mean it will be unlocked from that side. If it's locked, it needs to be unlocked on either side." she said with a frown.

Scowling, Theo rubbed his chin for a few moments before returning to casting _Diffindo_ on the door. After another few minutes, a sizable frame was cut away, large enough, Harry realized with a grin, for them to stoop through.

"Brilliant!" Harry said, patting Theo on the back for his ingenuity.

The moment they had begun make it through the door, the birds or bugs or whatever they were stopped fluttering about and dive bombed them. Harry and his friends charged through the hole in the door, banging their heads as they went and slammed it shut, realizing with dismay that the killer birds could fly right through the gaping hole, and continued running.

Theo pointed his wand over his shoulder and called out _Reparo_ as he ran, sending the detached blocks of wood back to their original place and successfully putting the door back in one piece in the nick of time, as they heard the drumming of the birds hitting the now repaired door behind them.

"That was close." Daphne panted. "I wonder what those birds were."

"They were keys, not birds! Wasn't anyone paying attention?" Hermione demanded. "They were flying keys. We probably had to get one and unlock the door that way, not with brute force."

"Oh well, it worked, didn't it? And if you knew they were keys and that we had to get them, why didn't you say anything? Hmm?" Theo questioned.

"Well, I didn't know how we'd get them. We haven't learned any summoning charms or anything that Quirrel could have used to get the key."

"So your observation was rendered moot by my brilliant resourcefulness." Theo said smugly.

"Sure, whatever makes you happy, Nott." huffed Hermione, rolling her eyes.

"If only more people had that same mindset, Granger." Theo said dreamily.

Harry couldn't hold back laughter at that comment, but it quickly died down when they reached the next room.

It was a gigantic chamber, which instantly lit when they set foot inside, revealing a gigantic chess board.

"Bugger." said Theo, causing Daphne and Hermione to give him disapproving glares.

"I'll say." said Blaise.

"What's wrong?" said Harry, who couldn't exactly see what was so distressing.

"Wizards chess set. We have to play our way through." said Theo shortly.

"So? What's wrong with - oh." said Harry. He remembered, vaguely, Theo and Blaise and sometimes Draco playing Wizards chess in the common room.

Theo was fairly talented at it, but the main difference between it and muggle chess was that the pieces were alive, talking back to their commanders and giving suggestions, and, most importantly, instead of taking opposing pieces in the regular fashion, they displaced them violently. Harry gulped.

"So we have to play?" Harry said nervously.

"I would imagine, yes." Theo said calmly, as though he were commenting on the weather.

"Some of us, if not all of us, will probably have to take some pieces place. Now listen to me, I'm better at chess than all of you, so just admit it to yourselves now. I'm taking the place of king and you'll do as I say, no arguments. And don't rush me if you know what's good for your health. I'm going to take as long as I want to make my moves, none of us can afford any mistakes. Got it?" Theo finished, glaring at everyone in turn.

Everyone nodded their assent as the opposing side, white, made their first move by moving a pawn forward, while the black king left the board and Theo took his place.

"Okay, Harry, you'll be a rook. Blaise, Tracey, you'll be bishops. Daphne, you're going to be queen seeing as I sacrifice the knights because they're not as good as the other pieces. Granger, you can be a pawn since I don't like you." he finished, with a nasty grin.

When Hermione opened her mouth to protest with a hurt expression on her face, he waved his hand dismissively and spoke over her "I jest. Take the place of the other rook, okay? Everyone settled? Let's play."

And the game was on.

Theo's assertion that this would be wizards', rather than Muggle chess was proven right when one of the black pawns took an opposing white pawn and smashed it into hundreds of pieces.

On and on the game went, with the remains of the white pieces piling up at the side of the board, and a small group of black pawns and a knight on the opposite side of the board.

Theo seemed to take forever to make any decision, evaluating all the possible moves and outcomes before making what he determined was the best decision. His strategy seemed to be one of attrition; luring out the enemy's more valuable pieces using the pawns and knights as bait and then catching them in traps. In no time the opposing side had lost both of it's rooks, a bishop and all of it's pawns, while Theo had lost all but three pawns, and no other more valuable pieces besides one single knight.

Finally, after what had to have been two hours, Harry took the last opposing rook, Hermione got the white queen, Tracey got the last bishop, leaving Harry to checkmate the king.

Miraculously, nobody had gotten hurt, apart from a few scratches and bruises received from flying rubble.

It may have taken a while, but Theo's cautious and calculating playstyle seemed to have triumphed. With that, they proceeded towards the next room.

Harry and his friends screeched to a stop as a disgusting and horribly familiar smell filled their nostrils as they entered the next chamber. There, lying on the ground, was a gigantic troll, easily bigger than the one he had rescued Hermione from on Hallowe'en. Fortunately, it had a sizable and bloody lump on it's head, and was apparently unconscious.

How long it would stay that way, nobody knew, so with a quick Levitation charm, Tracey disposed of it's spiky club in the previous room, leaving it without a weapon should it wake up.

"I told you there was going to be a troll guarding the stone." Tracey said triumphantly.

"Nevermind that, Quirrel is competent enough to take out a troll?" Daphne said in alarm.

Sharing dark looks, they wordlessly stepped into the next room, getting tense as they thought about how increasingly difficult each challenge was getting.

As soon as all of them were inside the next room, purple flames leapt up behind them while black flames burst to life in front of the archway that led onwards. On a table in the middle of the room were seven bottles of varying size and shape, with a roll of parchment laying next to them.

Hermione strode over and picked up the parchment and began reading, with Theo and Tracey reading over her shoulders, despite the fact she read out loud.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, two of us will help you, which ever you would find. One among us seven will let you move ahead. Another will transport the drinker back instead. Two among our number hold only nettle wine. Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore. To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: First, however slyly the poison tries to hide, you will always find some on nettle wine's left side. Second; different are those that stand on either end, but if you would move onward, neither is your friend. Third; As you see clearly, all are different size, neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides. Fourth; the second left and second on the right are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."

"What was all that waffle about? Which one is the poison?" asked Theo.

"It's a logic puzzle. It's brilliant!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Why is it brilliant?" said Blaise blankly.

"Because, no offense, but wizards don't usually have an ounce of logic. If you think about things logically, try explaining anything magic can do, without just saying the reason is magic. None of it makes sense, really." Hermione said.

"Why bother questioning the way things are? They are the way they are, and there's usually not an answer as to why." Daphne said, confused.

"But there is!" Hermione insisted. "At least in the muggle world, where there is no magic, things have to make sense. It's called science, and they use it to explain so many things. Everything, from gravity to the colour of the sky to... mountains.

Ever wonder how mountains are formed? Muggles figured it out. It's called continental drift. As the continents move over time, they eventually collide with each other, and when they do, the two meeting points of land crash into each other and result in upheaval, making mountains.

Things like that are explained, which is why this puzzle is so brilliant. Only people who have a large amount of contact with the muggle world can figure it out easily. When have you ever needed to figure something like this out? It's usually just a simple spell away, but not this time."

Everyone except Harry and Tracey was looking at Hermione with their mouths slightly agape, but returned to the task at hand.

"Of course it's brilliant. Professor Snape came up with it." Blaise said pompously, puffing out his chest.

"So can you figure it out?" Tracey asked.

"I think so. Give me a minute or two." Hermione muttered, examining the bottles.

As she paced back and forth, muttering and tapping bottles, Harry and his other friends stood around anxiously. Theo and Tracey tried briefly to solve the puzzle themselves, but soon gave up, not wanting to be the one responsible for a potentially lethal mistake.

After a few more minutes, Hermione finally came to a decision and offered them the smallest bottle. "This one will let us move onwards, and this one," she said, gesturing towards a rounded bottle on the far right "will get us back. There isn't that much in the bottle, maybe enough for one, two more."

"How can you be sure which one we want?" said Daphne.

"Because, just read it. It's simple. _Two among our number hold only nettle wine_, right? It also says poison will always be on nettle wine's left side. It says there are three bottles that hold poison. Then, it says _Neither dwarf nor giant hold death in their insides_, meaning the smallest and the biggest will either have wine, or the potion we want.

It also says that if you move past the farthest one on the left or right, neither is the potion we want. But it says the second on the right and second on the left are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight, and the second on the right is the biggest, meaning it's not poison.

But seeing as it's the second on the right meaning we moved onwards from the one on the far right, it's not our friend, it's not the potion we want, which means it's wine." Hermione rambled, Harry and his friends barely keeping up with her line of thought.

"So seeing as it's wine, we know the far left bottle is poison, as it's on the left side of the wine. Which leaves four unidentified bottles, two poison and the two we want. But seeing as poison will always be on the left side of wine, the one on the far right is one of the potions we want, right?" Harry and his friends nodded uncertainly.

"So we've got one of the bottles we want, but we still have two poisons and one bottle of what we want. But one of those three is the smallest bottle, and neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides, meaning the smallest is the potion we want, meaning the other two are poison." Hermione finished breathlessly, looking like she did whenever she answered a question successfully in class.

"I'll take your word for it." Theo said blankly, clearly not having followed the conversation properly.

"There's still not enough for all of us." Harry said, holding up the smallest bottle. "That one is probably what sends us forward." Hermione said. "It just makes sense. You'd want to limit how much allows you to move onwards, and seeing as there's two, the one that moves us onwards would definitely be the smaller one."

"She's right." Tracey said. "But which one of us goes forward? There's only enough for, well, we don't know how much we have to take, but even if we sip carefully, I don't see more than two of us being able to move on."

"Tracey is right." Theo said, nodding. "The rest of you, clear off, go find a teacher or something and let them know we're down here. This wasn't as good an idea as I thought it would be. I'm still sure we can capture Quirrel, but I don't know how we'll get back out of here. Just, wait at the bottom of the trapdoor and call up or something while we go after Quirrel." Theo said seriously.

"I know you're smart and everything, Granger, but Harry and me are the best fighters among us. Your reflexes simply can't match ours." Theo said smugly. "Let alone my vast knowledge. Me and Harry will go forward, you guys go back, got it? No arguments!" Theo barked the last part, looking and sounding suddenly authoritative and leader-like.

"Oh, alright." Blaise said, looking disappointed. "We'll still get a share of whatever rewards you get for apprehending him, no?"

"Of course." said Theo smoothly. "Now shoo!"

"Alright." sighed Tracey, holding up the potion bottle that would let them pass the purple flames and go backwards.

"Are you sure there's no other way?" protested Hermione. "How about a re-filling charm?" she asked, pointing her wand at the half empty jar and muttering an incantation, to no effect.

"Oh no! It's enchanted not to be re-filled." she said, disappointed.

"Just face it Granger, you're not going." Theo said impatiently.

"Why? Who says you get to go? I did better in our exams than you did!"

"Yes, but I do better in our dueling practice than you do, and this whole idea to go after Quirrel was my idea, and none of you would have known he'd gone after it tonight if it weren't for me keeping an eye on him. Plus," he said, taking a quick swig of the smallest potion bottle "you've got no choice now, I've already taken it." he grinned.

"Fine." sighed Hermione, as Blaise, Daphne and Tracey took the potion and exited the room. As Harry turned raised the bottle and turned to leave, Hermione called out his name.

"What is it?"

"Just be careful. Remember what he did to that troll." Hermione mumbled, rushing forward and hugging Harry, startling him.

"Granger! We don't have time for this!" Theo called bossily, stepping through the flames.

"Right, I will. Just be careful yourself." Harry said awkwardly, waving goodbye and downing the last of the potion. It felt like he had swallowed a bucket of ice.

Figuring that the feeling was telling him he was temporarily fireproof, as Theo stepped through the flames uneventfully, and that they hadn't subsided, Harry walked through the flames into the next chamber, feeling like he was in nothing more than a pleasant summer breeze.

As Harry entered the next chamber, he was startled by an unknown orange spell flying past him, and Theo shouting as he was already dueling Quirrel.

"_Locomotor Mortis_!" shouted Theo, whipping his wand in the prescribed manner for the leg locker curse, which Quirrel deflected into the wall.

"_Stupefy_!" shouted the Professor, sending a jet of red light flying at Theo, who quickly dodged it.

Heart hammering partly with excitement and partly with fear, Harry brandished his wand and joined in the fight, aiming a knockback jinx at Quirrel, who used a shield charm to stop it, one of the staples of dueling and the kind of spell Theo said most adults don't know how to perform.

Harry tried again by aiming a stinging hex at Quirrel, followed up by a full body bind. Quirrel deflected the Stinging hex, but had to dodge out of the way of the full body bind. Harry aimed another body bind at Quirrel, who blocked, while Theo, seeing his opportunity, shouted _Furunculus_ and successfully hit the Defense Against The Dark Arts Teacher, sprouting boils all over his face.

Harry quickly dodged a red spell while Theo aimed a body bind at Quirrel, who deflected it, right into Theo, snapping his arms and legs together and dropping him to the floor. Quirrel turned and shot black ropes out of his wand at Harry.

As he struggled against them, he managed to free his wand and shout _Diffindo_, severing one of the ropes, but it was no good. Harry collapsed to the floor, completely tied up.

Harry was beginning to panic a little now, to say the least. How could they have been so stupid? Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have appointed a teacher who can't perform simple spells to that position, and he was probably better and more qualified than most of the other teachers.

"I wondered if I was going to be followed tonight, Mr. Potter." Quirrel said, his voice uncharacteristically cold and sharp, not stuttering and foolish.

"I doubted it would be by two schoolchildren, however." he continued.

"Well, those schoolchildren caught up with you, and at this moment, are bringing some teachers down to catch you. You're not going to get the stone. You couldn't get it at Gringotts, and you won't get it now. The only place more secure than Gringotts is Hogwarts." Harry said defiantly, inwardly hoping that Hermione and the others had found a way to get back up to the school and get help from the teachers by now.

"The only teacher who can hope to match us is Dumbledore, and he's away in London. By the time he gets back, it will be too late. I'm surprised he left so willingly, after he enlisted Severus to watch over me, swooping about like an overgrown bat."

"Don't insult Professor Snape! He's twice the wizard you are, he doesn't need to make his living stealing what isn't their's!" Harry said, angry. He was angry at Quirrel for being a thief, angry at the potion bottle for not having enough potion for all of them, angry at Theo for bringing them here, angry at himself for following him and leading his friends into danger and getting defeated by Quirrel.

Quirrel ignored him, gazing into the mirror he was standing in front of, which Harry just now recognized as the Mirror of Erised, the same one he saw repeatedly around Christmas.

"So, it _was_ you who was trying to jinx my broom in my match against Gryffindor." Harry said, trying to distract him from whatever it was he was doing. The next puzzle probably involving the mirror.

"Why yes, it was. Was there anyone else it could have been?" Quirrel asked, turning to Harry with a scowl on his face.

"Well, Hermione thought she saw Professor Snape muttering, jinxing my broom himself, while my other friends said they saw _you_ muttering." Harry said, his attempts to distract Quirrel seemingly working.

"No, he was actually doing the opposite. Muttering a little counter-curse. If it wasn't for him, I would have had you off your broom long before that. I also let the Troll in on Hallowe'en to distract the faculty so I may attempt to get to the Stone, if you hadn't figured that out already."

"You did?" Harry said, having completely forgotten that night untill now. It wasn't very eventful compared to the exciting news that there was a thief teaching at Hogwarts and that his friends were plotting to capture them.

"Of course. I have a certain gift with trolls. It was I who placed the troll in the other room to guard the stone."

"But, isn't that kind of stupid?" Harry said, seeing the obvious flaw in Quirrel's decoy. "If everyone knows you have a gift with trolls, wouldn't they have suspected you when one suddenly gets in? There's supposed to be trolls in the Forbidden Forest, but they're also supposed to be pretty stupid and incapable of getting in without help." Harry said disparagingly.

"I'd like to see you do any better, Potter." sneered Quirrel, turning back to the mirror, muttering to himself.

"I don't understand, master. Help me. How do I get the stone? I see myself presenting it to you, but how do I get it? Is it inside the mirror, waiting for me to smash it?" Quirrel exclaimed, losing his temper.

"Use the boy..." hissed a third voice.

"Who was that? Who are you talking to? Who's your master? What was that voice?" Harry demanded, completely freaking out when he heard that voice. Not only was Quirrel referring to an unknown master that was apparently close enough to hear him, but the voice that responded had sounded like that of a horrible monster from a muggle horror movie.

Raspy and reedy, he could hear the evil and coldness inside it.

"I'm speaking to my master." Quirrel began calmly. "Do you think me to be some petty theif, simply wanting to get rich? No, I am taking this stone for my master, to bring him to power once more."

"Is he here right now?" Harry said confusedly, getting a horrible feeling inside of him.

"Certainly." Quirrel said pleasantly. "Lord Voldemort is with me wherever I go."

Harry's stomach leapt horribly. Voldemort. He remembered what Hagrid had said all those nights ago, back in the hut on the rock. "Some say he died. Codswallop in my opinion. Don't know if he had enough human left in him to die. Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on."

"Voldemort... is with you right now?" Harry said, horrified.

"Of course. After my failure to retreive the stone back at Gringotts bank, he had to punish me... severely." he shuddered. "Ever since, he's accompanied me everywhere, ensuring I do not fail once more."

"Let me speak to him." hissed the voice. "He is the key to the stone. Let me speak to him, face to face."

"Master, you are not strong enough!" Quirrel protested, still talking to nobody in particular. If it weren't for the voice replying, Harry would have thought him insane.

"I have strength enough, for this." hissed the voice.

Bowing his head, Quirrel turned around and began to unwrap his turban. Harry was completely confused. What on earth was Quirrel doing? The conclusion hit him just as the last of the purple wrappings fell to the floor. There, coming out the back of Quirrel's head was a hideous face. White as chalk, with red, slitted eyes. Like a cat's, or a reptile's.

"Harry Potter." hissed Voldemort. "We meet again. Do you see what I have become? You have done this to me. I am mere shadow and vapour. Unless I share another's body, I have no form. The Philosopher's Stone will return me to power. and you have the honour of helping me find it. The mirror is the key to it. Tell me what you see, boy." Voldemort snarled, while Quirrel clapped his hands, removing the ropes from binding Harry.

He was still too frozen with fear to move. What had he gotten himself into? A relatively simple attempt to apprehend what they thought was a lowly criminal led him into the presence of the most dangerous dark lord in history.

"You have no reason to be afraid boy, so long as you do as I order. Now, look into the mirror!" Voldemort said, seemingly amused about something, a disgusting and cold smile twisting his face.

While Harry didn't believe his word that he would be safe, he really had no other choice, even if he detested doing as the murderer of his parents told him. Legs shaking, he approached the mirror. As Quirrel and Voldemort moved out of the way, Harry expected to see his parents and other relatives in the mirror, but instead he saw-

"So? What do you see, boy?" demanded Voldemort.

"Headmaster Dumbledore." Harry said, bewildered. In the reflection was the Quirrel-Voldemort combination off to the side, and in the archway that led to the previous chamber was Professor Dumbledore, his face unusually cold and hard.

"What?" shrieked Voldemort, as the Quirrel side of the head turned in the direction of the archway. Harry looked over too, his scar suddenly burning like it had at the welcoming feast, all that time ago.

Right there, standing in the doorway was Professor Dumbledore himself, an expression on his face that emanated unbelievable power. Harry could feel it. He now knew right then why everyone said he was the greatest wizard alive.

"It was foolish of you to attempt this, Tom." said Dumbledore pleasantly, as though they were doing nothing more than enjoying a calm game of checkers.

"KILL HIM YOU FOOL!" shrieked Voldemort. Quirrel raised his wand and shouted_ Confringo_ sending a jet or orange light at Dumbledore, who, quick as a flash, deflected it upwards into the ceiling, raining chunks of stone down on Voldemort.

Another wave of his wand and Harry was pulled towards the headmaster by an invisible force, being softly deposited behind him. Quirrel shouted _Avada Kedavra_ and a jet of green light shot at Dumbledore, who raised a piece of stone in front of him to absorb the blast.

Dumbledore waved his wand at Harry, and Harry found himself suddenly shielded by a large stone wall. Despite how terrified he was, despite his scar feeling like it was on fire, he couldn't resist peaking around the corner of the wall to observe the fight. Quirrel shot another jet of green light at Dumbledore, who conjured a large golden shield out of thin air, which absorbed the blow, disintegrating in a green flash.

Dumbledore waved his wand and a silver jet of light flew at Quirrel, who conjured a shield. There was a noise like shattering glass and Quirrel stumbled backwards, raising his wand. But Dumbledore was too quick for him, whipping his wand upwards, sending the chunks of stone from the ceiling flying towards him. Quirrel waved his wand all over the place, some rocks exploding, others simply vanishing, while Dumbledore fired off a violet light at Quirrel.

Quirrel barley dodged it, rolling out of the way, only to find himself being encased by golden chains that were conjured by Dumbledore. Quirrel's eyes suddenly flashed red as he raised his wand towards Harry's position, shooting a jet of orange light at him. Dumbledore moved to block it, but it was too late. The stone wall exploded into dozens of pieces, most of which Dumbledore seemed to have frozen in mid air, but one small chunk caught Harry in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him.

Harry rolled over in pain, still able to observe the duel. In addition to the pain in his ribs, his scar felt like somebody was taking a cleaver to his forehead.

Quirrel waved his wand, and with a flash of light, the chains surrounding him evaporated. Dumbledore flicked his wand and Quirrel rocketed into the opposite wall, slamming into it with a nasty crack, landing in a heap on the floor. Dumbledore sprinted over to Quirrel and shot a jet of blue light at him. A large block of ice began to form around Quirrel, but a pool of black smoke began emanating from the back of his head.

Dumbledore moved to enclose it, but whatever it was, it dashed behind him and out of the chamber. Dumbledore bent over Quirrel and began waving his wand, a golden hue emanating from it, but Quirrel wasn't moving. After about a minute, Dumbledore rushed over to Harry.

"Are you alright Harry?" he said urgently, the look of infinite energy gone from his face, replaced by one of sadness, making him look exceptionally old.

"I think so." Harry muttered weakly. As he moved to get up, a blinding pain erupted in his side, as his vision filled with blackness. Feeling dizzy, Harry toppled over and passed out.

A/N

Sorry it took so long to post this, I was just trying to make it as good as I could. If you have any questions, ask them and I'd be happy to answer. As always, please review. A note about the chess game. I'm not saying Theo is better at chess than Ron is, but he's not around often in the books, J.K. herself said he'd be a loner, not hanging around with Draco's gang, and he's from an old pureblood family. I'd imagine he'd play chess, and I imagine he'd be good at it, but at a more calculating and methodical level than Ron's play style.

I'm hoping to have the next chapter out before next friday, but no promises. After that, I'll begin working on year two.


	7. Aftermath, and back to Privet Drive

So, I was a week late in posting this. It's harder than I thought it would be to keep on schedule.

**Harry Potter and The House Of The Serpent**

Chapter 7: Aftermath, and back to Privet Drive.

Harry awoke several hours later in a daze. The first thing he noticed was that the pain in his sides seemed to have gone, although they still felt tender and slightly sore. His head, too, was sore as though it had received a heavy blow, although it no longer actively hurt.

He slowly opened his eyes and took in the room around him. It certainly wasn't the dungeon that he last found himself in. There were dozens of beds with clean, white sheets, a small wooden table beside each bed, and countless windows streaming in bright sunlight.

There were a few other students lying in beds around the room as well. He presumed this was the hospital wing.

"Harry!"

A pair of voices startled him from his observations, and he turned his head to find Hermione and Tracey sitting next to his bed. They both looked rather pale and anxious.

"Madam Pomfrey! He's awake!" Hermione called. A few moments later a witch bustled in carrying a potion vial.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, I see you're awake. Here, take this. It'll help you feel better." she said, offering him the vial.

"Where am I?" Harry asked sleepily.

"You're in the hospital wing, after that dangerous stunt you pulled." Madam Pomfrey said disapprovingly.

"But what about Dumbledore? And Qui-" Madam Pomfrey took the opportunity to force feed him the potion while he was talking. It tasted awful, but he felt the soreness leave his body almost immediately.

"How long have I been here?"

"A few hours. I needed time to heal your bones. You had a couple of broken and damaged ribs, Mr. Potter, not to mention collapsing on a hard stone floor from adrenaline shock. Whatever were you thinking, boy?" she said, shaking her head.

"The headmaster will be in to see you in a few minutes, by the way." With that, Madam Pomfrey departed back to her office with the empty potion vial.

"What happened?" Harry asked urgently, turning to the two witches on his other side.

"Well, we went back like you told us to-" Tracey began

"And then when we got to the room with the devil's snare and the trapdoor above us, Professor Dumbledore sort of... glided down-" Hermione interrupted.

"And he just said "Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?" and then he ran in the opposite direction."

"And he came back a few minutes later, carrying you, and you were unconscious, and he floated all of us back up through the door-"

"And he took you to the hospital wing-"

"Okay, okay, one at a time. What happened to Quirrel, first of all?" Harry asked, feeling the beginnings of a slight headache.

"Well, he's um..." Hermione began timidly.

"He's dead." Tracey said bluntly, exchanging a dark look with Hermione. "I saw them carrying the body away. Even if he's not dead, by the looks of him, he will be soon."

"What about the stone? or Voldemort?" Harry questioned urgently.

Tracey gasped at the name and Hermione looked bewildered.

"Dumbledore went back down after he took you here, but I really can't say." Hermione said.

"Hang on, what's this about You-Know-Who?" Tracey demanded

"Quirrel was trying to steal the stone for him. He was... I don't know, possessing Quirrel or something, because Voldemort's face was on the back of his head." Harry said, grimacing as he recalled the unpleasant images from several hours prior.

Hermione looked sick and Tracey shuddered.

"What about Theo? Or anyone else?" Harry said. He had completely forgotten about his friend up until this point. He had gone with him into the room with Quirrel, and he had been hit by the body bind and Harry had lost track of him during the ensuing fight.

"He's fine, don't worry." Tracey said soothingly. "Dumbledore cancelled whatever spell hit him and he was perfectly fine. A little shaken up, as he was awake but paralyzed during whatever happened down there. Everyone else is fine. We all followed you and Dumbledore up to the hospital to see how you were doing, but soon Madam Pomfrey made us all leave. Eventually she started allowing visitors, and Blaise and Daphne and Theo and even Draco came by to see how you were doing. We were just taking our turn when you woke up."

"What did happen after we left?" Hermione asked.

So Harry told them. Everything. Every word Voldemort said, his and Theo's brief fight with their Defence Against The Dark Arts Teacher (an ironic job, Tracey declared) and the beginnings of Voldemort's and Dumbledore's duel.

"So you got to see the two most powerful wizards alive duel?" Tracey asked reverently.

"Dumbledore killed Quirrel?" Hermione said, sounding horrified.

"I don't think so." Harry said, shaking his head. "It looked like he was trying his best to contain him. Quirrel kept shooting off spells that... that destroyed the walls around us when they missed. They looked like they'd hurt if they hit, but Dumbledore's spells just tried to contain Quirrel whenever they hit. In chains and then a block of ice. Even if Quirrel had Voldemort's full power, wasn't Voldemort afraid of Dumbledore during the last war? I'm sure if Dumbledore wanted to kill him, he could have done it easily."

Hermione looked slightly placated at the news that their headmaster wasn't a killer.

"So what happened to you?" Tracey asked.

"Dumbledore sort of - he waved his wand and I sort of flew behind him, and he conjured a stone wall around me. To protect me I guess, but when Quirrel was losing he lashed out and smashed the wall. Dumbledore tried to stop it but a few chunks of rock hit me. Dumbledore caught him when he wasn't paying attention." Harry explained.

"So what spells did they use? Can you remember?" Hermione inquired curiously.

Harry frowned, trying to remember. "Quirrel said most of his spells, but I can't really remember them. I know for sure that Dumbledore didn't say a single word to cast his spells."

"That's really, really advanced. We aren't supposed to learn wordless magic until sixth year. Most adult wizards aren't even supposed to be able to do it that frequently. That's impressive."

"You flatter me." came an amused voice from the doorway.

All three of them turned to look, and their eyes fell upon Headmaster Dumbledore. His long, deep purple robes falling down around a nice pair of boots, while his eyes twinkled merrily behind half-moon glasses.

"I am not as exceptional as they say. Everyone is capable of such feats if they put their mind to it. I simply was more studious and dedicated to my education than my peers, if I do say so myself." Dumbledore said, coming to stand next to Harry's bed.

"Now, Miss Davis, Miss Granger, if you don't mind, I would like a few words alone with Harry."

"Of course, headmaster."

"Yes sir."

With that, Tracey and Hermione left the room, leaving Harry alone with Dumbledore. The full realization of what he'd done hit him.

"Sir, I'm sorry about what happened - I - uh, I'm not trying to blame anybody, but Theo just got the idea that we could catch him and-" Harry stopped as Dumbledore raised his hand.

"Harry, you are not in trouble. Nor is Mr. Nott or any of your companions. Whatever your motivations, what you did was noble and courageous. And I certainly wouldn't punish you after you came to be injured whilst in my presence. I apologize for you having to see what transpired between myself and Quirinus, Harry. I assume you have several questions?"

Harry's head was spinning. He wasn't in trouble? They had to have broken more rules than he could think of. Out after dark, in the forbidden corridor, destruction of school property. And the noble and courageous part didn't escape his notice. Gryffindor traits, and Harry was constantly being reminded by his housemates that Professor Dumbledore allegedly held a strong pro-Gryffindor bias. His head was swimming. But questions? Harry voiced the most obvious one.

"What happened to Vol- sorry, You-Know-Who?" Harry said, catching himself in time. Although he thought it silly not to say Voldemort's name aloud, his friends in Slytherin had informed him it was socially unseemly. Not only did it bring back fearful memories, but it was tactless to those families who had lost members at Voldemort's hand, and those families whose members had been bewitched, blackmailed and forced into his ranks.

"Call him Voldemort. Always use the proper name for things, Harry. Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing it's self." Dumbledore said, surprising him, but bringing back a memory of something Dumbledore had said to Voldemort.

"Sir, did you- did you call him Tom, down in the dungeons?" Harry asked, not sure if it had been real or not. He had been so caught up in the situation, but he was almost certain it had happened.

Dumbledore grimaced, and in that moment looked incredibly ancient. "Surely Voldemort is not his birth name, Harry. Very few know it, but Voldemort was once a charming and talented young man by the name of Tom Riddle. As much as Voldemort detests his enemies using his name, preferring them to be too frightened to use it, he simply cannot stand it when people use his birth name." Dumbledore said, looking half sad and half amused.

"Tom?" Harry said, who couldn't help but laugh. Voldemort didn't seem anywhere near as intimidating when he had such a common name as Tom.

"Yes, he was named for his Muggle father, which I daresay is one of the reasons that he detests it so."

Harry shook his head, momentarily sidetracked. "So where did he go? Did you capture him? Tracey said Quirrel was dead, but-" again, Dumbledore raised a hand to silence him.

"I'm afraid he has escaped. With poor Quirinus defeated, he fled from his body, leaving him for dead. Voldemort has no body of his own, and it would have been no easy feat to contain him in the state that he is currently in. I presume he is long gone down, possibly back to where he has been dwelling these long years. Not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. I attempted my best to aid Quirinus, but it was far too late."

Harry couldn't help but ask. "Quirrel... how did he die? Did you-"

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "The moment Quirinus allowed Voldemort to inhabit his body, he was doomed. His presence weakened and corrupted Quirrel, and when Voldemort left his body, Quirrel perished. He shows just as much mercy to his followers as he does his enemies. His state was worsened when Voldemort took full control near the end of our little duel. He forcibly possessed Quirrel completely, in one last attempt to overpower me."

"What about the stone? Did Voldemort get it? Quirrel wanted to use it to bring Voldemort back!"

"Ah, I was hoping you would ask that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that is saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the stone - find it, but not use it - would be able to get it, otherwise, they'd simply see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir Of Life. I daresay you, who wanted to stop Quirrel from acquiring the stone, would have located it had you been allowed to look into the mirror, if it weren't for the ah, interruption." Dumbledore explained, his eyes twinkling and giving Harry a small smile.

"How would that work sir?" Harry asked, confused.

"You would have gazed upon the mirror, Harry, and it would have shown you acquiring the stone from it's hiding place. Quirrel could have been down there for eternity and wouldn't have been able to find it, seeing only him using the stone, but not where the stone is hidden or how to find it."

Harry nodded, beginning to understand.

"So what happened to the stone?" Harry continued.

"Ah, that. Yes, while I had a chat with a dear friend, and we decided it would be best to have the stone destroyed. It would be far too dangerous in the wrong hands." Dumledore said mournfully.

"B-but your friend Nicholas Flamel! Won't he die without it?" Harry said disbeleivingly.

"Ah, you know about Nicholas, do you?" Dumbledore said, looking pleasantly suprised. "Well, he has made enough Elixir for himself and his wife to set their affairs in order, but yes, they will die. It is not such a terrible thing. Not many can claim to have lived for over five-hundred years, Harry. It would be more like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."

Harry nodded, thinking over what he said for a moment, when another question popped into his head.

"Sir, if the stone is gone, does that mean Voldemort can never come back?"

"I'm afraid he can. The stone is not the only way he may regain his powers, but that is no guarantee of his return. If the next time he makes an attempt, and there are those who stand up to him, such as yourself and Mr. Nott, and he is again thwarted, he may never return. So long as there are those who stand up for what is right in the face of danger."

"Okay. I have another question." Harry said.

"Just another?" Dumbledore said kindly.

"Quirrel said that you had ordered Professor Snape to follow him around because you suspected him, is this true?" Harry asked, somewhat wary. If Dumbledore had indeed suspected Quirrel, he could have done a better job keeping an eye on him.

"I gave Professor Snape permission to keep an eye on him, due to his own suspicions, not my own. And even if I were to suspect him, it is just that - a suspicion. One does not accuse another of being in league with Lord Voldemort lightly, Harry."

"I understand, sir." Harry said, knowing he probably hadn't gotten a straight answer. He had been taught in Slytherin how to detect half truths and replies that deflected your question but did not answer it.

"So, how long do I have to stay in here? The match against Hufflepuff is tomorrow."

"I thought you would only have one more question, Harry?" Dumbledore said, smiling slightly.

"Just this one extra, then."

"Madam Pomfrey informs me that you may leave sometime today and return to your common room."

Harry went down to the common room later that night, being held up by Madam Pomfrey's last-minute checkups and diagnostic spells. Apparently she feared he'd be grievously injured by simply traveling through the halls of Hogwarts.

He took a deep breath before entering, still in somewhat of a daze. Not that he felt ill, but it was that he still felt like a part of him hadn't gotten over the shock of Quirrel's true intentions and all the chaos that followed soon after.

When he entered the common room, he was immediately mobbed by his yearmates.

"Is it true?"

"Were you in the hospital?"

"What happened after we left?"

"So did Dumbledore kill Quirrel?"

Harry raised a hand to silence them and lead them into a corner, to avoid being overheard by the upper years. Again, he was met with a wave of questions, although more hushed this time.

Sighing resignedly, Harry accepted the fact he would have to explain his story several times over during the next few days.

"First of all, Voldemort - Oh, stop gasping - was possessing Quirrel to try and get the stone."

"He's alive?" Draco asked, looking horrified.

"Not very." Harry said grimly. "He doesn't even have a body unless he possesses somebody, or else he's just a cloud of dust."

"He was with Quirrel that entire time? Hiding behind the turban?" Pansy asked, looking disgusted.

"Yes. I don't know for how long though. I saw him in Diagon Alley back in July, and he didn't have a turban then."

"I bet he was happy to see you of all people." Daphne said wryly.

"He did seem to blame his current state on me, yes."

"And you survived again. You've got to be one of the luckiest people in history. Or more precisely, you're very lucky in your unluckiness. It's very unlucky to have You-Know-Who attack you any amount of times, but you have to admit, you had no business surviving. Lucky Dumbledore was there." Blaise said.

"About that!" Tracey said eagerly. "How was their fight?"

"Loud. Confusing. I'd probably have been excited if it weren't for the situation I had found myself in."

"Well, at least you're alright." Daphne said grimly. "Why were you in the hospital anyway?"

"Dumbledore conjured a wall of stone to shield me, but when he started losing, Quirrel sent a spell into it that sent rock everywhere. I took a boulder to the ribs, no big deal." Harry said with a grin.

"You seem to attract a lot of trouble, Potter." Draco said, looking amused. "First that business with a troll, then your broom tries to kill you, and then this. I may need to stop hanging out with you for fear of my health."

"Hey, in my defense, all three incidents were because of one person, and nobody but me got hurt."

"Glad you're better, Potter." Goyle said, looking sincere and patting Harry on the shoulder with his oversized hand.

Eventually, Harry's friends grew tired of questioning him and departed to their own business once more, when Harry noticed somebody was absent from the impromptu gathering they had held.

In the usual corner he haunted, Theodore Nott was sitting in his chair reading a book. When Harry approached, he looked up.

"Hello." Harry said uncertainly.

"Greetings." Theo said cooly.

"So, do you want to talk about... you know." Harry began.

"No, I don't know." Theo said, avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Yes you do. You know who." Harry grinned.

"Oh har, har." Theo said, giving Harry a withering look.

They stared at each other for a few more seconds, before Theo scanned the nearby area and began to speak.

"Listen, I didn't mean to lead you to The Dark Lord, I swear. I just thought it was Quirrel, okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you in danger."

"I followed you, I'm just as much to blame as you are. Don't be so hard on yourself. Why would I think you lead me to Voldemort?" Harry asked, bemused.

"No reason." Theo said, looking relieved. Harry knew that something was up, but decided that the issue was for a later day.

"That was pretty freaky, though." Theo said, looking slightly pale. "Hearing You-Know-Who speak. I'd say I nearly wet myself, but Notts are made of sterner stuff." he said gruffly.

"I'm sure they are." Harry said sarcastically. "At least you didn't get hurt. And remember we all followed you down there on our own free will, don't blame yourself." he added seriously.

"I know. I'm just slightly ashamed. Rushing into a situation I thought I understood. How very... _Gryffindor_ of me." he shuddered.

Not long after that, a sixth year prefect barked at the first years to head to bed, and they did so, dutifully.

The next day brought Slytherin's final Qudditch match against Hufflepuff. Harry caught the snitch after Slytherin had already scored twenty-five times to Hufflepuff's seven, ending thematch 400-70 in Slytherin's favour, ensuring Slytherin would obtain the Qudditch cup.

Before Harry knew it, he was attending the end-of-year feast, sitting at the Slytherin table as always. His wonderful time at Hogwarts had come to an end so quickly. Quicker then he liked, as he thought darkly of the Dursleys.

Although he didn't hate all muggles, or despise them and believe them to be inferior as some of his housemates did, he despised these ones.

The Dursley's would have gladly taken him in if he had been "normal" in their eyes, but no. They were ashamed of his gift, jealous even, because all they were at the end of the day were miserable, envious muggles, fearing things they cannot understand and reacting with hostility. His housemates constantly said most muggles were the same, and he found he agreed. At least in the Dursley's case.

Harry couldn't say whether or not most muggles were like this, as he hadn't met very many (thanks to the Dursleys, again) but Hermione's parents seemed proud of her for being a witch, as was Tracey's father, so they couldn't be all bad as some of his housemates would have him believe.

Although there was no denying that the Dursleys were the way they were simply due to the fact they were muggles. And he'd be having to go back to that - _that place_ - by the next morning, he thought gloomily.

He was trying to keep his spirits up with memories of all the happy memories and friends he had made during his stay here, but it was hard when he kept wondering how he'd be greeted back home.

He was interrupted from his musings by Dumbledore clanging a utensil against his goblet to announce something to do with recent events.

"First, to Miss Hermione Granger, for cool use of logic in the face of fire, I award sixty points."

There was an uproar of clapping at the Gryffindor table, and everyone but the first years at the Slytherin table looked horrified. Slytherin and Gryffindor had been neck and neck, and Hermione's sudden bounty of points would put Gryffindor in the winning for the house cup.

Although Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup this year, the house cup was, in reality, more desired. By Slytherin at least, as that would have made it ten years in a row Slytherin had won it. A full decade. All down the Slytherin table it looked like the hopes of that record were being crushed, but Harry and his friends knew better. They had kept their night-time adventure three days prior a secret, and he suspected nobody (besides the Quidditch team) outside of the Slytherin first years knew what it was about.

Harry glanced over at the Gryffindor table. Although Hermione looked pleased, and her housemates looked ecstatic, she kept sending apologetic glances at Harry and his friends.

The pandemonium died down when Professor Dumbledore spoke up again. "With that, I believe a change in decoration is in order." Dumbledore clapped his hands, and to Harry's horror, the hangings and banners and tapestries that had previously held Slytherin house symbols and colours changed to their Gryffindor counterparts. Surely if Hermione was alloted points, Harry and his friends would too, right?

Harry's heart had nearly stopped when Dumbledore spoke up again, sending an amused glance towards the Slytherin table.

"Second, to Mr. Theodore Nott, for remaining ever calculating, resourceful and cautious in a worrying situation all while being able to think on his feet, I award fifty points."

Theo looked relieved, and most of the other Slytherins looked confused, although not all. Clearly, word of what had happened had spread, at least in rumor forms, as the other houses seemed to have a faint idea of what this was about as well.

Dumbledore continued.

"Third, to Misses Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, and Mr. Blaise Zabini, I award ten points each for, despite your doubts, sticking by your friends in the face of danger."

The looks of surprise on their faces was almost comical. Clearly they hadn't expected any reward, as they hadn't been _quite_ as influential as Theo, Harry or Hermione.

"And lastly, to Mr. Harry Potter, for clever thinking and outstanding courage, I award Slytherin sixty points."

Gryffindor table looked heavily disappointed, but they couldn't really complain. They hadn't expected to win as it was, and they should be grateful that they just got Hermione's points in the end.

Meanwhile, Slytherin house lost it's usual calm and unassuming mask and went wild. Only now did it become apparent that they would be winning the house cup again, and by an even bigger margin, as they all threw their hats into the air, began stamping their feet and many other things to show their excitement.

"Well done Slytherin, well done Slytherin. Now, let the feast begin!" Dumbledore beamed, clapping his hands again as the hall decorations changed again to reflect the true winner.

"You'll have to fill me in on what happened to get you and your lot all of those points." a sixth year Harry didn't recognize said from across the table. Harry nodded, not really paying attention as he dug into his dinner.

Yes, that did help him forget about what was going to greet him later tonight. It was nice winning, wasn't it? especially when a great deal of the points had been won personally by Harry and his friends, even if they were going to win anyway. Harry glanced up at the table and saw Professor Snape looking especially smug as he shook hands with Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house.

As the students exited through the front doors from the entrance hall to begin heading down the pathway towards the awaiting fleet of boats after breakfast the next morning, they were handed out notes warning them not to use magic during the holidays.

Theo and all the other purebloods scoffed at that, as they had claimed "The Trace" could only detect magic in a certain area, and it was mostly used to prevent muggleborns from breaching the statue of secrecy.

It was next to impossible to tell who was casting spells in a certain area that had a high magical population, such as Hogsmeade, the village neighbouring Hogwarts, or even a magical household. Theo and Draco claimed they were allowed to do a large amount of preparatory magic before coming to Hogwarts, as the ministry couldn't tell who was creating the detected magic emanating from Malfoy and Nott Manors.

"I always hope they forget to give these out each year." Fred - or George - Weasley said.

"I thought purebloods could use magic at home without the ministry knowing?" Harry said, baffled, having learned this earlier that day.

"I guess they can, and between you and me, we do, but our dear old mum doesn't approve. She'd go nuts if she caught us doing half the stuff we do in our rooms. " said who Harry thought was George.

"This is between us and you, right?" the other twin - Fred - cut in.

"I guess. As long as you write to me during the summer. I've got nobody to talk to but my _relatives_." he said, sneering the last word. It hadn't really dawned on him how horrible the Dursleys were until he reached Hogwarts. Even rival houses treated him better then his own _blood relatives_. He had just been used to being treated that way by practically the only people he knew for almost eleven years, but now that he was used to proper treatment, he was appalled at their behavior.

"Okay..." Fred trailed off uncertainly, sharing a glance with his twin.

"They're not really nice people. They're muggles, and they have a rather _archaic_ view, _if you know what I mean_." Harry said darkly.

Fred grimaced and waved him off as he took the fork on the path that took him to the carriages, which was how the older students got to the train.

As he continued down the path, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he found Theo staring at him.

"Have a good year mate. I got Flint to shrink your trunk and cast a notice-me-not charm on it."

"They won't really pay attention to it, and feel compelled to ignore it, somewhat like the spell that's cast on the Leaky Cauldron and the entrance to Nine-And-Three Quarters." he added, seeing Harry's confused look.

"It's like that so they don't see schoolchildren disappearing through a solid wall. Anyway, I'd think the notice-me-not would be enough, but I assume you'd need their help to carry it, and they'd definitely notice it then. So it's really small now, and a lot lighter too, so you can put it in your pocket and take it with you. Not for long though, it'll only stay small and light for twenty-four hours."

"Thanks. They'd probably try and throw all the contents in the rubbish, or lock it up."

"Any time, Harry. Have as good a holiday as you can have with muggles." Theo said, wrinkling his nose is disgust and grimacing.

A short boat ride later, and Harry was on the Hogwarts express headed back home. Harry, Daphne, Theo, Blaise, Tracey, Hermione and Neville Longbottom all shared a compartment on the train, eating wizarding candy and practicing spells, using up the last opportunity they had to do magic outside of school. (At least in Harry and Hermione's case)

In an unpleasantly short amount of time, he was shaking hands and hugging his friends goodbye, before stepping through the barrier and being greeted by the Dursleys.

"Ready, are you boy?" his Uncle, purple faced as ever, demanded.

"Yes." Harry said neutrally, trying to hold back his laughter as he saw Draco and his parents pass, looking at Vernon like he was something unpleasant that one found in a lavatory.

"When we get back, you're weeding the garden to start with, and then you're mowing the lawn. It's gotten long, and while you're at it-"

Harry sighed internally. His summer break was going to be _long_.

A/N

So, this is the end. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. As I look back on this, the whole story feels really more like a prologue to the rest of the years, and I'm amazed at how well it reads (if I do say so myself) seeing as it's my first HP story. It's gotten nearly 4000 views. I'd like to thank each and every reader, reviewer, everyone who's favourite/followed it, and several excellent FF writers who inspired me (along with my brother) to do this, as well as offered advice along the road.

Edit: I fixed a lot of odd spacing erros that hadn't appeared when I published it.


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